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Sounds like the story of our season.

Unless a team has seriously good strikers, or a strong midfield and/or creative wingers, the creation of genuine chances to score from play (as opposed to scoring from dead ball situations, such as free kicks, or penalties) don't come all that often in the Premiership; therefore, you need to convert a reasonable percentage of whatever small number of chances do come your way.

West Ham had chances, and this was a game where they could reasonably have expected to have taken, or secured, a point.

And, elsewhere, the good news is that Leno's injury is not as bad as it had seemed initially, but he will definitely be out for the remainder of the season; to my mind, he was the best player Arsenal have had for the past two seasons.

And, inexplicably, Arsenal have decided to extend the contract of David Luiz for another year.

Each and every time, he takes to the pitch, I feel an attack of the vapours coming on.
 
Unless a team has seriously good strikers, or a strong midfield and/or creative wingers, the creation of genuine chances to score from play (as opposed to scoring from dead ball situations, such as free kicks, or penalties) don't come all that often in the Premiership; therefore, you need to convert a reasonable percentage of whatever small number of chances do come your way.

West Ham had chances, and this was a game where they could reasonably have expected to have taken, or secured, a point.

And, elsewhere, the good news is that Leno's injury is not as bad as it had seemed initially, but he will definitely be out for the remainder of the season; to my mind, he was the best player Arsenal have had for the past two seasons.

And, inexplicably, Arsenal have decided to extend the contract of David Luiz for another year.

Each and every time, he takes to the pitch, I feel an attack of the vapours coming on.
Our top striker is out injured. Our treatment room sees a lot of action every year. But if you don’t take your chances you get punished.
As for the ‘thug’ Luiz I’m not actually that surprised.
 
Our top striker is out injured. Our treatment room sees a lot of action every year. But if you don’t take your chances you get punished.
As for the ‘thug’ Luiz I’m not actually that surprised.

Our treatment room is rather busy, actually exceedingly busy, too, at the moment, unfortunately.

Well, I am surprised that Luiz's contract - after that grotesquely comical and catastrophic performance against Manchester City - has been extended for a further year.

I'm not sure that I would describe him as a "thug".

He is not dirty, just rather, I see him as a dangerously incompetent defender, someone who regularly shows spectacularly poor judgment and is particularly prone to egregious errors any time an opponent's striker, or player, makes an appearance anywhere near the box.

Whenever he makes an appearance on the feld of play, I become nervous, as I know that catastrophic mistakes, comically awful mistakes, dreadful match losing mistakes, are not just possible, not even likely, but almost, in fact, inevitable.

Personally, I'd have let him go; however, the decision is not mine to make, and I am aware that the team is becoming increasingly depleted as several players are carrying njuries, some of them serious.
 
Well, I am surprised that Luiz's contract - after that grotesquely comical and catastrophic performance against Manchester City - has been extended for a further year.

I think part of it is that they paid rather a lot for him and jettisoning him now would be a big climbdown. Also, whoever thought buying him was a good idea in the first place surely knew he was error-prone and is evidently not shaken by the latest mistakes.

Keeping him is not a terrible idea...but playing him as a center back IS a terrible idea. He should be in midfield, where his strengths (through balls and attacking play in general) are maximized and his weaknesses (lack of speed, occasional horrible error) are less costly to the team.

Of course, that means Arsenal still need a central defender.
 
I think part of it is that they paid rather a lot for him and jettisoning him now would be a big climbdown. Also, whoever thought buying him was a good idea in the first place surely knew he was error-prone and is evidently not shaken by the latest mistakes.

Keeping him is not a terrible idea...but playing him as a center back IS a terrible idea. He should be in midfield, where his strengths (through balls and attacking play in general) are maximized and his weaknesses (lack of speed, occasional horrible error) are less costly to the team.

Of course, that means Arsenal still need a central defender.

Actually, you are right.

Arsenal have needed a central defender since forever, and I remain astounded that the club have not attempted to address, or remedy, this glaring deficiency.

And, agreed, in defence, Luiz remains an accident waiting to happen; better to deploy him in midfield where his strengths and talents are called upon, rather than where his weaknesses need to be masked.
 
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BHA had the best kit of the day!

I always liked a clean, green football shirt. Another good one was Germany's away shirt from one of the recent World Cups.

In fact, I have a new skool New York Cosmos NASL away shirt from a few years ago. Clean and green. Only got it because I work at the design agency that did the Cosmos' branding and advertising back then, but I did trek out to Long Island to watch a couple of matches with Marcos Senna, Raúl, et al.
 
BHA had the best kit of the day!
I always liked a clean, green football shirt. Another good one was Germany's away shirt from one of the recent World Cups.

In fact, I have a new skool New York Cosmos NASL away shirt from a few years ago. Clean and green. Only got it because I work at the design agency that did the Cosmos' branding and advertising back then, but I did trek out to Long Island to watch a couple of matches with Marcos Senna, Raúl, et al.

Actually, the kit I have liked most in recent years was the beautiful nod to the old classic pale blue shirt that Manchester City wore for the Charity Shield last autumn.
 
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Very tight at the bottom, as three teams - West Ham, Bournemouth and Aston Villa are all on 27 points, with West Ham ahead - barely - on goal difference. Watford are a point above that, again, at 28 points, whereas Norwich are six points (that is, two won games) adrift, on 21 points, which I very much doubt that they will be able to make up at this stage of the season, as they have only won five matches all season.

Elsewhere, at the other end of the table, Liverpool are leading Crystal Palace by four goals to nil, as the 90th minute approaches, so, I think that @Lord Blackadder can relax for the evening.
 
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Very tight at the bottom, as three teams - West Ham, Bournemouth and Aston Villa are all on 27 points, with West Ham ahead - barely - on goal difference. Watford are a point above that, again, at 28 points, whereas Norwich are six points (that is, two won games) adrift, on 21 points, which I very much doubt that they will be able to make up at this stage of the season, as they have only won five matches all season.

Elsewhere, at the other end of the table, Liverpool are leading Crystal Palace by four goals to nil, as the 90th minute approaches, so, I think that @Lord Blackadder can relax for the evening.
Tight it is. We have Chelsea next. The easy games just keep on coming!
 
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Ahh I gotcha. We call it soccer. Over here football is like Greenbay packers and soccer is like Manchester United lol
Yes I’m aware. But the rest of the world call football the one you play with your foot. American Football is more like rugby. But I’ll be honest the rules of American football and rugby confuse me. Probably because I never played them.
 
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