Friday, March 29, 2024

3 Things We Learnt From The 1st Leg vs Besiktas

With Arsenal’s poor performance vs Besiktas on Tuesday night, there were signs of where there were areas of improvement. Even though Arsenal won their opening game vs Crystal Palace, the performance wasn’t it’s best. The victory vs Manchester City in the Community Shield gave us a sneak peak on what was to come and unfortunately we haven’t seen a performance as close as that. Here are 3 things that we learnt vs Besiktas.

1. We need the Germans – Arsenal’s performance vs Besiktas was very poor, Arsenal lacked creativity with possibly Santi Cazorla worst game in an Arsenal shirt. It was clear Arsenal were missing Mesut Ozil, Ozil could have played the key ball to Alexis or to Ramsey to unlock the defence. Calum Chambers has a bright future at Arsenal, he has only played 5 games at centre back and has done a fantastic job there but with Mertesacker likley to return on Saturday, Arsenal players and fans will be much more comfortable with the partnership of Mertesacker and Koscielny.

2. We need a Striker – With Mario Balotelli moving to Liverpool and  Girouds’ very poor performance vs Besiktas it was obvious that we are lacking a world class striker. Giroud is a good striker but we need a world class striker who can finish a half a chance is one game. We may have that star striker in Alexis Sanchez as you saw in the world cup he can do a job there.

3. We need a holding midfielder – With Arteta now injured we only have one defensive midfielder in Flamini or maybe two in Jack Wilshere but we are short. There are rumours of someone coming in for example Carvalho, Lars Bender and Sami Khedira. Since Gilberto Silva left Arsenal have not filled that position and it has cost us in crucial games such as Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City last season. What Arsnal have lacked since Vieira left is a big nasty player who you would be afraid of and I think that is the key to solving our problems.

 

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