Giroud, Gervinho flop, Ox out: Arsenal in Liverpool swap

10 points behind Chelsea and worrying signs for Wenger

By
  • Staff
Published

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (L) of Arsenal and Anthony Pilkington of Norwich City chase the ball during their English Premier League soccer match at Carrow Road in Norwich, October 20, 2012. (REUTERS)

If single games go as watershed moments, the Premier League had at least three on Saturday.

Chelsea laying Tottenham Hotspur to the sword, Manchester City coming from behind to win at West Brom, with 10 men and, believe it or not, Liverpool getting their first home win of the season to Reading.

Raheem Sterling gave the Kop and Brendan Rodgers a huge lift with a wonderful strike.

The Reds then won the old fashioned way – there was nothing tiki-taka about the performance.

In fact, it was a hard-fought ground out win. It will do.

Liverpool may have just one striker, but they have more than one player who can score.

Arsenal on the other hand, though going by Arsene Wenger’s frank “we were not good enough” admission, will not look at their loss to Norwich as such a watershed moment.

They will know that for the first time this season, the Santi Cazorla-Mikel Arteta combo was unable to paper over the fact that Olivier Giroud is no Robin Van Persie and Gervinho could be a Theo Walcott in the making – inconsistent.

Wenger said: “I felt we lacked sharpness. We missed what makes success at the top level and that’s complete focus.

 “The attitude was efficient but this performance was not at the level we want. We were below the par — very below.”

One only needs to look at the Premier League table to figure out just how below par Arsenal actually are.

After eight games Arsenal are 10 points behind leaders Chelsea and Liverpool, who spent the first five games in the bottom half of the table are now just three points behind the Gunners.

Against Norwich, Gervinho flapped his chance, Olivier Giroud flopped in front of goal and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain went off injured.

Going into the Champions League and the December footballing madness are Arsenal going to have their normal early-to-mid season crisis?

Liverpool and Arsenal look ready to swap places.

Only this time, both Arsene Wenger and Brendan Rodgers look ready to buy a striker in January.

Until then, keep the patience loaded Gunners.

 

  • Twitter
  • submit to reddit

Comments

  • Durukwuaku 23 October 2012 00:12 0 0
    I am one of those Arsenal Supporters who still believed that it was wrong to sell both Song and RVP.Now we need a replacement. We need a sharp striker and a defensive medfielder. Walcot should stay.If we had paid RVP 150,000 he would have stayed.Giroud is not sharp.
  • KANGU KAWAWA 22 October 2012 16:35 1 0
    Arsenal needs two lethal strikers(Demba Ba-type)...two quality pacy wingers,Jesus Navas-type,on both flanks.this will pin back defences.
  • Kekere E maxwell 22 October 2012 12:59 2 1
    Arsenal players re to b blame and d management(board)but not Arsene winger.no enough money to buy top player dat arsenal fans like.
  • Lion Heart 22 October 2012 12:19 3 1
    I think Giroud is a really good striker and is good enough to play for Arsenal but he is just struggling with the expectations at Arsenal because people are expecting him to replace Van Persie which i don't is fair on him. With time i think he prove himself worthy of the shirt. As for Gervinho is concerned, he has all the technical ability to be a world class player but he lacks footballing intelligence just like Walcott and thus most of his decision making in the final third is always poor.
  • Fanibefisayo 22 October 2012 00:28 0 3
    I dnt knw 2 am ashame 4 wht arsenal play yesterday arsenal need a gud striker nd a gud defender a winger arsenal 2 rebuild there team poor arsenal
  • may7heaven 21 October 2012 21:30 1 2
    If we were serious about competing with the Chavs & the Mancs we'd have signed Mata and not let RvP go.- But now old Stan Krankie has worked out that failing to qualify for next year's ECL will cost him a lot more than buying Fernando Llorente - so maybe there is a bit of light on the horizon.
  • richard morgan 21 October 2012 19:56 4 1
    easy to blame giroud when he got no service at all yesterday and the one time he got through was just offside but hit the target with it. he engineeered a bit chance from a corner and had swing at one late on which was not a real chance. Judge Giroud at end of the season and if the guy has not got 20 + goals then he has been a flop.Other players were just as accountable yesterday Ramsey Mannone and Gervinho and poldolski all below par.
  • Taarquin 21 October 2012 19:39 1 2
    Arsenal needs a top striker who can finish brilliantly, and a winger that can take on players and wip balls into the box for the strikers..
  • Victor daniels 21 October 2012 17:25 3 7
    Arsenal needs a better striker than geroud
  • David Genga 21 October 2012 16:06 2 6
    For Arsenal, let them wait for next season. They should've signed kalou or jelavic

Have your say

Comments submitted by third parties on this site are the sole responsibility of the individual/s whose content is submitted. DMI accepts no responsibility for the content of comment/s, including, without limitation, any error, omission or inaccuracy therein. Please note that your email address will NOT appear on the site.

By submitting your comments you agree to this website's Terms & Conditions

Type in the characters you see in the picture below.

  Team P W D L GD PTS
1 = Man Utd 38 28 5 5 43 89
2 = Man City 38 23 9 6 32 78
3 = Chelsea 38 22 9 7 36 75
4 = Arsenal 38 21 10 7 35 73
5 = Tottenham 38 21 9 8 20 72
6 = Everton 38 16 15 7 15 63
7 = Liverpool 38 16 13 9 28 61
8 = West Brom 38 14 7 17 -4 49
9 = Swansea 38 11 13 14 -4 46
10 = West Ham 38 12 10 16 -8 46
11 = Norwich 38 10 14 14 -17 44
12 = Fulham 38 11 10 17 -10 43
13 = Stoke 38 9 15 14 -11 42
14 = Southampton 38 9 14 15 -11 41
15 = Aston Villa 38 10 11 17 -22 41
16 = Newcastle 38 11 8 19 -23 41
17 = Sunderland 38 9 12 17 -13 39
18 = Wigan 38 9 9 20 -26 36
19 = Reading 38 6 10 22 -30 28
20 = QPR 38 4 13 21 -30 25

Videos

See more videos

News In Images

See more galleries

Most Popular on Emirates 24|7

Latest jobs available

More jobs on Emirates 24|7

Related articles

Back to top