Middlesbrough was well organized and they all did their jobs. But playing at home, the Gunners should have created far more chances. I think we got one shot on target the first half. We wasted free kicks in great positions and corners. Cech (man of the match) had to do more than his opposite number; we could easily have been down two goals at the half. We played a comfortable game at home mid-week, so that's no excuse. I think this was a game that needed more creativity from midfield. Ozil was flat today, and neither Coquelin nor Elneny is going to contribute much to the offense. This may have been a good day for Ramsey had he been healthy, or Xhaka had he not gotten red carded. Cazorla is hurt. Maybe we'd have done better with AOC instead of Elneny in a 4-1-4-1, but my suggestion would be to have started Lucas Perez, either as above or move Alexis left and sit Iwobi, who was not doing a whole lot.
It was apparent that the win streak was more than a little lucky. We can play with anybody, but struggle to break teams down when they bunker in. With no Giroud, crosses are to no one. (If Bellerin is working on his crosses, it is not evident.) We got what we deserved today, maybe more than we deserved. This performance should be a wakeup call: Arsenal is unlikely to top the league if they drop points like this, no matter how brilliantly they play from time to time. This is the sort of game we have to get three points from.
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