14 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

This annoyed me too. When Rogers went mad at Rice, there was about 5 Arsenal players that quickly pounced to protect him and were in the refs ear. Only one of our players came over and that was Gusto, and all he did was pull Rogers away. I said in the match thread that all of this whining about Arsenal's dark arts isn't going to change anything. You need a bit of nastiness in you to compete at the top and you certainly need it to win titles. I think we lack that and James certainly does too.

Yes, that pissed me off, too. People tend to bitch and whine about Arsenal geting away with things and refs favouring them but the truth is, it's not enough just to have quality players, you need big personalities, too. Chelsea in the past had them in abundance, but this current group are boys, not men.

JT brought up similar thoughts about our lacking in the dark arts. How Joao Pedro and Hato did little when Martinez got booted in the head, that he would have been all over the ref trying to get a red card.

Alonso should know this is important aswell in this league, he was in a Liverpool side masters of it themselves with Gerrard and carragher.

Our team may just be too nice. Cole is so laid back he plays from a horizontal position, James is not far behind.

Only player we have who plays that I can say has a mean streak in him is Martinez.

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

JT brought up similar thoughts about our lacking in the dark arts. How Joao Pedro and Hato did little when Martinez got booted in the head, that he would have been all over the ref trying to get a red card.

Alonso should know this is important aswell in this league, he was in a Liverpool side masters of it themselves with Gerrard and carragher.

Our team may just be too nice. Cole is so laid back he plays from a horizontal position, James is not far behind.

Only player we have who plays that I can say has a mean streak in him is Martinez.

Even on a side note from this, when Rice took down Rogers, and Rogers was at least remonstrating, nobody was around him, nobody was backing him up. Gusto runs in eventually, but more to hold HIM off.

7 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

JT brought up similar thoughts about our lacking in the dark arts. How Joao Pedro and Hato did little when Martinez got booted in the head, that he would have been all over the ref trying to get a red card.

Alonso should know this is important aswell in this league, he was in a Liverpool side masters of it themselves with Gerrard and carragher.

Our team may just be too nice. Cole is so laid back he plays from a horizontal position, James is not far behind.

Only player we have who plays that I can say has a mean streak in him is Martinez.

Alonso also played at Real Madrid when Mourinho was manager alongside sh*thouses like Marcelo, Ramos and Pepe. You don't win being a nice guy, unless you're Kante.

Didnt Reece James play in midfield for coventry when loaned there?

had a quick flick through this click bait below... pretty much agree with it. so the question is, who do people want to replace our world class captain with in the middle of the park. Enzo couldnt do the job and he is a 240 million pound player. names below, and do factor into your thinking that we struggle to sign the right types of players.

More than happy for Alonso to keep picking our world class captain as a central midfielder. I'll be delighted to see him playing on the right in wing back role or right back, but I think our manager see's him as a midfielder. Anyhow. hope he stays injury free.

Why Reece James is a legitimate midfield option, and how...

He can’t just “play there” in midfield, he’s a top midfielder

12 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

Didnt Reece James play in midfield for coventry when loaned there?

had a quick flick through this click bait below... pretty much agree with it. so the question is, who do people want to replace our world class captain with in the middle of the park. Enzo couldnt do the job and he is a 240 million pound player. names below, and do factor into your thinking that we struggle to sign the right types of players.

More than happy for Alonso to keep picking our world class captain as a central midfielder. I'll be delighted to see him playing on the right in wing back role or right back, but I think our manager see's him as a midfielder. Anyhow. hope he stays injury free.

Why Reece James is a legitimate midfield option, and how...

He can’t just “play there” in midfield, he’s a top midfielder

He's seen as a midfielder by Alonso because we don't have anybody else that can play there, we sold them all and failed to bring anybody else in. If we had signed Scott and Caicedo wasn't injured, they would be our two starting midfielders.