The Arsenal Thread XI

It's the same old Wenger mistake of having too much faith in players who aren't performing. We've seen it with Denilson, we've seen it with Diaby, now we're seeing it with Ramsey. I'm not writing Ramsey off here, it's just at the moment nothing seems to be coming off for him, in fact he's actively slowing down our attacking play. Don't like to see him starting as CM let alone on the wing tbh. If his name is in the starting 11 vs City I will facepalm.

My only thought would be that Wenger sees Park and Van Persie as being too similar in what they can offer. With Van Persie clearly the better of the 2, if he's unable to make a breakthrough, chances are, Park won't be able to either. Despite him not using it to any effect these days, at least Chamakh has the height and strength to offer an aerial option that could provide a decent plan B. I guess that's where the Almunia vs Szcz argument comes in, as it's clear Chamakh's just not gonna produce, so you might as well add another technical finisher type player into the mix and hope that even if he doesn't score, his added threat opens things up a bit more for someone like RvP. However, if he tried that and it didn't pay off, there's no doubt he'd hear a barrage of 'we need a big man up front' - despite it being too late to now rectify that, though admittedly it seems odd to not try it at least once.

For me, the Park signing was indeed a bit of a mystery and it's certainly one that you could deem a panic buy - Wenger saw how poor we were in the opening weeks of the season, especially going forward and saw just how few options we had after RvP so he reacted by buying a player I imagine he'd looked at and admired before, but never really deemed Arsenal quality. The shirt sales aspect was probably one that was considered, albeit briefly in the short time he left himself to make a decision, but given the option of having increased revenues and at least some form of back up for an injured Van Persie with the potential risk of having some South Korean fans being miffed at having bought a Park no.9 shirt if by some miracle RvP didn't get injured meaning Park wouldn't get a look in, I'm sure the vast majority of us fans would have been grateful for any signing at all and snapped at the chance.

Wenger clearly made mistakes last summer and continues to make some errors now. Every manager does. There may appear little sense in using Ramsey wide left but we were facing one of the worst sides in the league, high in confidence thanks to our best winning streak since the Invincibles and we'd come away with 3 points with him out wide left a couple of games before so there was little to suggest we wouldn't again. Also, while there's little sense, there's certainly some logic to it, perhaps Wenger's recognised that Ramsey's not going to be a viable option in the important central role and hopes to convert him into a creative wide player. Again, issues with quickly moving the ball on may be problematic and out wide his lack of pace will be shown up, but his positional struggles in the centre may be eased with the relatively simpler wide role and he, like Chamakh up top, at leads provides a different option to the pace based alternatives. It was obvious QPR would set up deep and try to hit us on the counter, so having more players who can play killer balls made sense. Was he effective? No. Would we have been better off fielding Gervinho/Ox from the outset? Yes. Would most fans have opted for Ox? Of course. But was he the reason for defeat? No.

In trying Ramsey out wide, it could be argued that Wenger's making steps in rectifying his own issues with accepting players aren't good enough. Not fantastic steps by any means, but steps nonetheless. The supposed signing of Podolski, made clear so early on, is also a great indicator that he's learnt lessons from the last summer window. He's identified an issue with the squad that was insufficiently targeted before and rectified it quickly. The biggest concerns coming out of the game at the weekend were Vermaelen's defensive frailties, which are still completely overlooked by far too many fans, a touch of overconfidence in the players and perhaps RvP's form which isn't as red hot as we've come to expect. This turn around and run was set in motion, in no small part, by Wenger's decision to keep faith in Rosicky - who many would've had dumped as 'deadwood' at the end of last season and by the decision to keep Theo on past half time against Spurs, something I imagine very few would have done. Over the last few years we've had many a time to complain about lé boss' actions and complained we have, but despite the weekend's performance, now really isn't one of them.

I think the only panic buy this season was Benayoun (although it was a loan). I doubt the Asian market was the biggest factor in the signing. We needed a striker that was willing to be second fiddle to Van Persie and Park is that player.

I've heard that he doesn't play amazingly for the reserves. We all have to remember that Wenger watches both Chamakh and Park in training every week and must of course assess which is playing better. More often than not it has been Chamakh. As JK mentioned, both Park and Van Persie play similarly and hence subbing on Chamakh offers a different threat.

I still think Park deserved a proper chance to prove himself.

Who will be preferred at LB for the remainder of the season? Gibbs or Santos or will they be rotated?

Gibbs for now, he is playing some of his best football and isn't really a liability, until there is a reason to bring Santos on, it'll stay that way.

*No changes to the squad for Man City game

does this mean RAMSEY is playing?

Got to go all the way back to Anelka for our last prolific No. 9, or maybe as far back as Alan Smith.

The Newcastle fans were upset that Lawro didn't write much about them in his predictions last week. This week, I'm pretty sure there's zero words about us!

chances of wilshere playing this sunday? can see us only getting a draw at best without him

He has no chance this weekend. He still needs to play at least two reserve games to get back to match fitness.

Personally, I don't think he'll make an appearance this season unfortunately.

i don't get this match fitness thing.. why can't they stick him on and sub him off if it appears that he lacks the fitness to continue? rather than not play him at all?

Because he might get injured again if his body ain't ready.

so he can train all he wants but playing in an actual match means he'll get injured? doesn't make any sense

i guarantee you all that he would be fine if he got played on sunday, people just over analyse things