Team News: Brighton vs Arsenal

These boys have got more than enough to beat Brighton, but they have to take it seriously. I'm delighted to see Rosicky back on the field.

Goal. Giroud! I thought we were giving the home side too much room to play; almost taking our 2nd half team tag too far. We have to keep the control and gain confidence by looking for and getting another. .

Thought szczesny should have done better for their goal, coming at a period we appeared to be, relatively, comfortable. He made the call and the defenders left the cross to him; what the defenders forgot to do was to shield the marauding Brighton players. Basic defending. Or do we blame it on zonal marking?

Hmmmm. In another place, Gervinho strikes again for Ivory Coast, against Tunisia. Good goal too; the kind he would miss, playing for us.

Spoke too soon.

Jack wrestled to the ground in the area and nothing given. Its this sort of inconsistency that's so frustrating.

We'll take that! Thank you.

Harder than it should have been but we got there in the end. Giroud and Walcott finding the net again is a positive. Seems to be a bit of a competition building for top scorer between them (and Poldo maybe not out of it ). Haven't seen that in Arsenal colours for a while have we? All in double figures (Theo just 3 off the 20 mark).

Ramsey is too slow for a modern premier league midfield player.

Ramsey's shown a reluctance to be first to the ball, and to be prepared to guard the ball since Shawcross broke his ankle. I can understand why, but it's frustrating when the ball's there for him and I expect him to win it, but he waits for someone else to come in and take the ball. The Arsenal team have to get him working to get over this, because if not his future prospects are bleak.

Yes this whole zonal marking thing reminds me of Benitez at Liverpool. He was determined to implement it even though it quite blatantly was not working. I think there is a place for it, but I don't think it plays to every players strength. The likes of mert, verm, kos and co are quite obviously confused with the concept. Just pick up a man and stick to him like **** to a stick.

I think zonal marking works best against the 4-3-3. Man-marking might be the best thing to use against a 4-4-2, but all the better teams play a 4-3-3, so you practice zonal marking, and that's what you play with. Maybe you switch it up when playing a 4-4-2, maybe you think against Brighton we can win without having to change it.

Last season, it was man to man marking, and we were still poor on set pieces. Criticising the concept of zonal marking is off the mark if the players don't stick it properly. To me, the defending in general has been better this season compared to last - there are still too many individual errors, but we're holding our shape a lot better.

Does anyone know the stats for how many goals we have conceded from set pieces? My understanding is it's not as bad as the pundits would have you believe.

No 10.... I saw somewhere (can't think where now) a bunch of stats to how many goals we have conceded through individual errors and it was shocking....slip, trips, fluffing clearances, losing possesion that sort of thing. Basically the basics. If somebody beats you with a piece of individual brilliance then fair enough. But there is no excuse for some of the goals we have given away. I do think teams get around our full backs to often. Our best game is pressing the opposition high up the pitch. When we play a high tempo pressing game we rarely if at all lose. We make the opposition lose possession by doing so and smash them on the break. When we turn the throttle off and sit back we are there for the taking. Similar to barca our best defensive tool is pressure high up the pitch. Teams like stoke can sit deep and defend all day long.....we can't plane and simple. To many times when the opposition get into their attacking third against us, find gaping holes (and I'm not talking about your misses).....it is like watching a knife slice through butter. I have noticed over the last couple of years teams are starting to come into our back yard and have a go at us. They know our weakness is when we're in our defensive third and that we are very vulnerable when we have to try and defend (basically were ***** at it) the days of coming to arsenal and parking the bus have long gone, we have been well Sussed out. They know if they sit back they will never get the ball back so now they push us back and chase us down so we HAVE to defend. Just my observation.