Elneny is a good but not great midfielder. I like his energy very much but I see him more as a squad player, and in that respect the type successful teams need, more than a first choice starter.

I don't dispute Mertesacker would have made a difference Bernard. I only discount Mert from my thinking because he is at that age now where he probably isn't going play every week, and neither is Kos, which as both you and Sab point out is more than enough reason to briong in another CB, if a topclass one can be found.

Having said all that it seems that the pages headed "defensive drills" have been well and truly torn from Wenger's coaching manual and shredded because the concept of defending professionally seems to be completely lost on his teams and has been for years, irrespective of the personnel we deploy.

We were the best team in the league at defending set pieces last season, and I think second best the year before. Not like this Vardy goal happens every week.

Wenger gets a lot of stick for his tactics, but his substitutions last night were spot on. Taking off Holding, pushing Lacazette out wide and having Ox and Bellerin switch flanks turned the game in our favour. Fair play.

Come on Haz, don't keep making up these b%*&s%*^ excuses for our defensive ineptitude. We've been piss poor defensively for years and it's cost us big time on many occasions, especially against good sides who know how to exploit our vulnerability. Vardy walked in and nodded the ball home completely unchallenged on the edge of the 6 yard box. How does that even happen? Whose zone was he in for goodness sake? Okazaki outjumps Xhaka despite being about 4 inches taller. It's schoolboy stuff.

We are always vulnerable to goals on the break. We had 27 shots last night and scored 4, Leicester had 6 and scored 3 all of which were a direct result of piss poor defending.

Our defending is indefensible.

Thinking a little about Alexis potential transfer. we beat Stoke and score a couple of goals. We then go to Liverpool and get a score draw. Alexis does not score either because he is still injured or the goals come from other players.

The board call Wenger in. We are free scoring and Alexis is not required to get us all these good results. The board decide to sell him. Or Wenger tells them they can sell him as there are plenty of goals in the team.

I won't rule it out.

It's not excuses, it's a fact. We are very good at defending set pieces - that doesn't mean the second Vardy goal wasn't bad or that our defending as a whole is always good, but let's be a little objective here. We don't make that mistake very often at all.

For the first goal Xhaka was practically standing still, while Okazaki was attacking the ball, that's why he reached higher. That goal was the fault of Čech, not Xhaka. It seems you're judging every goal we concede from your narrative of Arsenal defending like schoolboys and it's keeping you from being able to do any rational analysis of our defensive play.

The Ramsey change was totally necessary but Leicester really shot themselves in the foot with the subs they made. Played right into our hands and showed tactical naivety from Shakespeare.

We looked decent at the tail end of last season once we switched formations. I'd say we were only really poor against Spuds during this run and defensively our worst yesterday. However as you said, four defenders missing can't just be dismissed. Also, Holding as outstanding as his potential is, really still needs a BFG or Kos/Mustafi to guide him through games. That defence was not a unit yesterday.

And Bellerin just doesn't look like his usual self. His decision making yesterday was not good, constantly bombing forward at the wrong time and leaving Holding exposed. I think it would've looked completely different with just one of Mertesacker or Koscielny on the pitch.

HT Watford 2 Scousers 1. Three halves of premier league football and 10 goals so far.
Very entertaining but no surprise English teams are failing at European level.

The board barely pay any attention to this type of detail I think

13 goals now. Liverpool look anything but solid defensively, and from what I can see they're only missing Clyne.

Finished 3-3 we are STILL top of the league.................


How many months to November?

Watford get a late equaliser 3-3 v Liverpool

A disappointing draw at Watford, and with Champions League qualifiers to come - it must tough for a club to begin its Premier League preparations with such matches in mind. Where does one place one's focus? It's a conundrum. One's sympathies are, of course, with Klopp and his team.

Central mid is still an area of the team that's needs strengthening.

Plenty of players to come back in to our side. I prefer Monreal as the left of 3 CB rather than Kolasinac. Heard Gary Neville slating Kolasinac for being too cavalier with his positioning. I think he's very well suited to the left wing back position. Next game I'd go with
Čech
Mustafi, mertesacker, monreal
Ox, Ramsey, Xhaka, Kolasinac
Özil, Welbeck
Lacazette

Thats all sounds rather condescending. It you look rationally at our defensive displays over the last decade and ask why we have consistently failed to mount a sustained challenge for the title and/or CL despite being one of the most potent attacking teams around you would have to say that more often than not its our defending that has been one of the key issues. Time and time again we see poor organisation and tactical awareness, a lack of communication, a lack of defensive awareness, poor postional sense etc, etc.

We generally get away with things because we dominate possession against most PL sides and can generally do just about enough to offset the habitually soft goals that we tend to concede against lesser sides. Monopolising possession but then conceding soft goals when opponents are on the back foot is our speciality. Take last night, it took us 27 shots to score 4 and Leicester scored 3 from just 6 shots. We have to work much harder to score against teams than they generally do against us.

When we meet a team that doesn't allow us 65%+ of the possession then our defensive frailties are often ruthlessly exposed. Hence, we've taken more thumpings against top six teams than any of the other top sides, many of them downright embarassing performances, and tend to bow out of the CL as soon as we meet a half decent opponent.

Almost any pundit or ex player when asked why they feel that Arsenal so often fall by the wayside will reply that our defence is our achilles heel. What does Steve Bould actually do because there is very little evidence of any real defensive coaching?.

Agree with that. Ox deserves to play there on current form and in the new sytem may have more to offer, certainly in an attacking sense.

Just read that Gibbs won't be going to Watford as they won't pay his 80k a week wages and he won't take a pay cut. Mental we offered him that contract if true but shows how crazy football is that a player would prefer to barely play rather than take a pay cut. I think we may need to consider taking reduced fees for some of these players now otherwise we won't shift them

Didn't mean it in a condescending way - I just disagree that the goals we conceded last night were a continuation of the defensive problems we've had in recent years.

But hey, at least we can agree we're doing better than Chelsea!

Cahill sent off, Burnley up 3-0. Oh happy days.

What an insane start to the season.

Chelsea down 0-3 at home, and down to 10 men. Can it be any better?

So nice to see Cahill finally sent off for one of his reckless lunges.

What can Man City do to surprise us other than ruin our weekend?

Only Tottenham meeting the same fate is better. Liverpool drawing was nice too.
Great to see Huddersfield off to a good start. How did they rise so quickly? Money? Or the old fashion way, earned it? Its got to be a few decades they were in the top division. Happy for them.

Chelsea down to 9 men, Cesc gets the red card

Your wish will be fulfilled

Recipe for disaster. Neo Nazi, KKK and other such similar groups march in Virginia for the removal of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's statue's removal. Counter protesters, Virginia is an 'open carry' state which on its face is mind boggling. Protesters armed, legally, publicly! Amazed its not kicked off yet, nor do I want it to.
Its insane. If we have to train police in how to use a gun publicly and even they get it wrong, how can a society have 'open carry' with firearms by people who have no training whatsoever?! Insanity. A case can be made for the home..but in public?

*%^@ off a@hole we're only interested in football for the time being.

Burnley what are you doing?

Give it a rest.

Burnley let them back in it but held out. Game should have been locked up.

Chelsea beaten at home on opening day. How sweet

Agree on Elneny and Xhaka is a bad pairing. Especially given are the home side against a weaker side. No need to be overly defensive.

I am also not comfortable with our defending. I'm not confidence we can keep a clean sheet against anyone.

After the weekend's results, we may see that it may be a season of attrition where the top 6 clubs can't count on beating the clubs below them so easily. The amount of money in the EPL has certainly helped the lower half of the table get quality players. A few of them can go overseas for decent players when they couldn't have a half dozen or more years ago.

Some Arsenal fans are of the opinion that we are more than well stocked up at cb. Others admit we need an addition but say VVD is never a £60m player. As far as I'm concerned I think someone like that would not only improve us now but will be able to take over from Kos in the long run. What I don't understand though is many of the fans that say VVD is not worth £60m are willing to let Sanchez leave on a free next season. How can we afford to lose £50m (implying we have 100s of millions just sitting in the bank) and at the same time complain about a £60m outlay? Doesn't make sense to me.

I think this is the main reason we sell players for so cheap. Their wages are so high that the club is usually prepared to accept a smaller transfer fee. I wonder if it's the new guy from team Sky that is demanding we get bigger transfer fees. I'm not sure, I think £10/12m for fringe players like Gibbs that we've turned down were reasonable offers. We need to trim the squad.

100% agree VVD would suit us down to the ground we should buy as there is noone else available that is better than him, is there?

I find it incredible that they've sold Matic. He gave them so much presence in midfield and formed a formidable partnership with Kante. Why on earth would you break that up?