by Trapper John » Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:35 am
So back to Arsenal and we have big problems. Not only have we made it doubly hard to achieve top four we have new players who are not cutting the mustard.
It's far too early to make judgements on Aubameyang, new to the Premier league he needs to find his feet, not so with Mkhitaryan and Lacazette.
Mykhitaryan was hauled off yesterday for precisely the same reasons he failed to establish himself at Manchester United, going missing and failing to do his defensive duties. I think we have another Ozil on our hands, brilliant when they feel like it, anonymous when they don't, Ozil wasn't much better yesterday either.
Lacazette should have settled and sussed out the Premier league by now, yet he's full of self doubt and his confidence is shot to pieces. I've always said that players with remarkable European pedigrees often struggle in the Premier league, he has I just hope the same won't apply to our newest arrival.
Our best players yesterday were Cech in goal, those performances though don't come in every game and Mustafi put in shift too but he's the same.
By a country mile Jack Wilshere was our best outfield player yesterday, since coming back from on loan he has barely put a foot wrong and if Arsenal don't make every effort to keep him after this summer then it will be sheer negligence, injustice and foolhardiness.
Top four still isn't unsurmountable but it's rapidly fading with every game we fail to win. From now on draws are as unacceptable as defeats so Wenger needs to identify the problems and deal with them asap.
It is looking more and more likely our best chance for Champions league football is through the Europa and that is far from certain with the calibre of teams still in the hunt who take the competition far more seriously than English clubs do.
We go away to Scandinavia on Thursday, no doubt we'll beat the minnows, it's the bigger teams left we need to worry about.