communicate

20+ mill for 29 years old injury prone forward is a very good business by arsenal. Not sure for united though,vaan persie is a fantastic player but mu already has Rooney, welbeck, cicarito + kagawa can play as ss also.

I agree with u that typical double pivot consist of dlp and dm. On paper lampard + mikel fit that bill but on the field they don't look good. Lampard is supposed to be our dlp but his natural tendency is to go forward and this leaves us with only mikel who is very static and awful with the ball on his feet. Romeu has the potential to play in mikel position but I don't think he is part of rdm plan. A healthy essien is the perfect option but he looks slow since last year. And I just don't trust meireles

That 11 players in their prime

I have no problem losing the game. City looked impressive, 3-4-1-2 with deadly combination of tevez and aguero. For us, - I like our front 4, it looks like ramires havs to play to give protection to our fullback. - Mike is awful with the ball as usual

If he saw our play in pre season, he will say battling to avoid relegation

You cannot compare cup to league, the best team usually always win the league , cup is different

Wow I am really surprised with some of the negative comments, I saw him a couple time last year. He was really good, bombed right wing constantly and defensively he was very solid. and juve is not going to sell him

I still don't understand how some/most fansy don't see how Lampard is not supposed to be our main CM. Dropping Lampard is like a sin. Last year Lampard was awful when we try to play attacking football, he was outstanding under RDM when we play defensive football. Right now we are trying to become more expansive team so It's time to get new cm and move lampard to the bench.

That's too much too ask. What we need is one passer in midfield to replace lampard

I did not watch the game but based on what I read in this forum, the problem is our midfield again. We have that problem since last season, nothing change. Our midfield cannot play when they are asked to boss the game.

In term of attacking and bossing the game, oscar definitely can play as cm. The big question is can he defend, we are not Barcelona who dominate possession which allow them to play with only one DM

You are right , we can't just go hung ho all the time but you cannot slow down the play most of the time especially when we have 4 quick attacking player that need the ball quicker to be effective

Last year we tried 4-3-3 but it did not work because we had a no 10 in mata, and now we have two no 10 so I think we will keep playing 4-2-3-1

I agree with your assessment especially in the double pivot position. Like last year we have bunch of box-to box player who cannot pass. I really hope we can get xabi alonso/Bastian Schweinsteiger type player before the season start

yes, mata is back for use =))

Great chip

He looks pretty good but uae fullback is very poor. Bellamy is having a day. BTW UAE attackers are really2 fast

He is a no 10, He is not going to play as double pivot

I expect that to be our main starting lineup for next season. Our 3 AM can switch position at will and If we need to boss the game better we can bring oscar to replace lampard.

I highly doubt mata can play as CM. Defensively he is very poor and his natural tendency is to go forward,not sure about oscar.

Hazard-Torres-Marin Mata/Oscar-Ramires Mikel Cole-Terry-Luiz-Ivanovic Cech That's is 4-2-3-1 because mata/oscar will play in the hole As long as we play with a no 10, we will play 4-2-3-1

There is nothing wrong with Ramires, he has never been good as pure attacking player, he is great when we play more defensive because he is really good in counter attack and tracking back full back.

Without meireles, we played much faster and much222222 bettter

Like last year we still don't look comfortable when we have the ball

Are we talking about the same mikel that was bashed early last season and in the end of the season was praised and considered to be MOM in our UCL run ? As long as we are going to play with a no 10 (we have 2 now in mata and oscar), we are going to play with double pivot. So I really hope we can get one midfield in the mold of Xabi Alonso/Pirlo to help our no 10 to boss the game.