A Winning Weekend On Merseyside?
Apr 5th, 2014 by 'holic
So Goodison Park on a Sunday afternoon was always going to be the sternest test of our final six fixtures, but for a different reason. Instead of being a test of our title credentials it has now become an important game in terms of Champions League qualification. Everton, four points behind, but with a game in hand, need a result as their run-in looks much tougher than ours, on paper at least.
The team news is a mixed bag, as ever. Aaron Ramsey, surely a contender for footballer of the year had he stayed fit, is back in the squad. Surely he will make the bench at best, but his return is more than welcome. Nacho Monreal also returns, which is timely given that Kieran Gibbs is a doubt.
Everton too have their injury problems, with Jagielka and Pienaar among those ruled out. They haven’t beaten us in fourteen meetings, so at least we have that in our favour. There is, however, a feeling on Merseyside that the bluenoses have made great strides under Roberto Martinez and European football next season would be a just reward for their efforts.
I am guessing that Monreal for Gibbs will be the only change from the team that battled so hard for a point against Manchester City. That side certainly earned another opportunity to gain a result in a key fixture. Victory for the visitors wouldn’t secure fourth place mathematically, but it would be a big step towards that, and indeed keep us just about in the hunt for a top three berth and automatic Champions League qualification.
The ‘holic pound seeks some value and I am staggered at the 25/1 on offer against a 1-3 away win. It says a lot about how the bookies view our chances. A 1-1 draw and Everton winning 1-0 or 2-1 are the shortest odds. If we can find a little bit of our early season form we could just do it so I am putting the pound, and not much more, on that impressive away win. It would complete a profitable weekend on Merseyside, given I had the winner of the Grand National in the works sweepstake.
Apologies for the brevity of the preview. I am on a notoriously slow wireless connection in a Reading hotel where I will be watching the action tomorrow lunchtime. The report may not appear until I get home on Monday. I hope you have enjoyed (or are enjoying) your Saturday, and the results on Sunday go in our favour.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
437 Responses to “A Winning Weekend On Merseyside?”
We’ll win it!
..and Chelski to spectacularly IMPLODE over the next few games!
😀
Alcoholics Unanimous!
Hic* Hic*~
Nice preview as ever. It will be a very difficult game and I would happily settle for a point but we have a great record at Goodison and let’s hope it continues. A fourteen game unbeaten run piles big pressure on the team who are on the receiving end .
We. An only anticipate a tough Sunday afternoon but please let’s hope it’s not one that sees us blow up as we did at Anfield and the Bus Stop. If we can reproduce last weeks spirit and form we will be fine
Nice one holic, cheers.
Got another one of those reunion gigs tonight and am currently on my way to
Rotterdam. Going to be a late one, so I may have to record it.
Looking for a good solid performance from the lads to break the early kick off hoodoo.
COYR’s.
A point tomorrow would be more than welcome. They’re a good side and it’s a tough place to go.
I hope the lads are ready to start fast, because they may need to. We do not want to be giving the locals encouragement.
COYG
3-1 win? Why not ?
Can’t see us scoring 3 goals against Everton, H.
Will settle for 1 as long as they’ve nil.
COYRs.
Nice one, Holic.
Surprised you could write anything at all seeing as you’re in a Reading hotel. 😉
Good stuff* Holuc
… What the hell, I’m not even out on the piss! 😛 Infernal touchscreen, still not fully used to using one yet 🙁
Apologies for those two drinks Holic*.
The Holic pound seems very well placed, Everton are strong at home so as nice as it would be for us to take a clean sheet back to the Emirates tomorrow, I reckon they’ll nick a goal as they have on the other two occasions we’ve played them this season. But who cares as long as we score more 🙂
Fine preview H. I shall be beside myself with delight if we pull off a 1-3 win tomorrow. It’s about time we put in a proper shift in an away game against a direct rival. Shan’t see it myself as I will be travelling home from Lille. However with y’all in spirit (Highland Park 18yo of course). Let’s show that Anfield and the Bridge were complete aberrations. Much like that Compton fella. COYGs.
Well, if you find yourself beside yourself, bath, be sure to pass yourself a wee celebration tipple. 😉
That will be a tipple to topple the toffees ……….
Heh Trev. I hope your knee is progressing well and look forward to sharing a libation with you in the usual place before the season is over.
Let’s give these toffees a right good chewing.
Cheers all. Apologies bath, I am on Irish tonight…
Hope that knee is improving Trev 🙂
Hey ‘Holic
Not that far from my neck of the woods, why in gods name would you stay in Reading lol.
Just back from Germany myself and kind of disappointed with how our season seems to have had a mini implosion, but it ain’t over till its over.
I’m still hopeful for a kinder lady luck end of season than we are usually used to.
Cheers Holic, bath,
Yes, had my second half hour in two weeks without the leg throbbing this afternoon – bliss for 30 minutes. Oh well ……. 😉
Gotten out of predicting results.
A strangely strange feeling on this one.
Cheers Trev – get well soon.
With our injuries & only 13 League points secured out of the last 30, a point would be massive. Everton have physical strength in midfield w/Barkley, McCarthy & Barry plus plenty of pace w/Mirallas, Lukaka & Coleman. I’m interested to see how we set up tomorrow. An Everton win & a win next Saturday at Sunderland, they’ll be 4th. Let’s see what character the lads are made of tomorrow. I hope they’re up for it.
COYR’s
Best of luck to the lads. Let’s go there and melt some toffee down.
Give the toffees a good chewing, bath ?
I hope they just rolo-ver and give us that 3-1 win.
Another goal for Ro-sticky perhaps ?
No fudging our defensive duties then, Porco. 😉
Hey depressed, here to see the Bootleg Beatles tomorrow night, so decided to make a weekend of it. I lived around here twenty plus years ago, so catching up…
Oh ‘Holic,
I lived in Reading 27 years ago and would not go back if the real Beatles reformed heh, but you are made of stronger stuff and I hope the Bootleg Beatles are worth the horror for you 😉
BTW Trev, was sorry to read about your Arsenalisation (continued injury problem) 🙂
A winning title for your next post ‘holic could be to do the same without the question mark at the end. Must be on the lookout for energy saving measures where they can be found you know. On the other hand if we thrash them there ought to be something about thrashing in the title. Springtime thrashing a portent of autumnal threshing? *dons coat and proceeds to read the post. 🙂
Evening one and all.
It’s going to be a tough one tomorrow. As much as 3 points would be very welcome I do think this is a must not lose game. If we do then we put ourselves under enormous pressure. Like Zico I can’t see us scoring 3 but I would love to be proved wrong. That’s assuming we don’t concede 4 in the process.
Keep the faith.
Nice preview Holic, cheers. Btw Holic, is that Guinness and Jamesons?
Lived for 30 yrs near Reading, it’s changed a fair bit in that time. Anyone who went to Elm Park will understand!
Let’s hope we wrap those toffees up 😉 I’m expecting a very tight game
and in the context of current league aspirations, a draw will not be a disaster.
Bath, just celebrated Uply junior no 1’s 40 th birthday – he is now off for a weeks holiday on Islay……guess he will find something worthwhile to see & do 😉
Uply. On an island with a name like Islay I would say the real questipn is whether can find something interesting t drink. :
Writing in a Reading hotel does seem a bit inappropriate come to think of it.
Touch screen also the true cause of my recent spell of spelling woes …
just win the next game by the way.
Bt8b…..I expect the car boot (trunk) to be fully loaded on the return trip 🙂
right o ‘hol
on the irish
are we
.
eh!
.
RACIST!
.
*flounces off wrapped in a Dana poster*
.
+
trev
my lumbago
discuss
.
🙂
enjoyed
injury
write up
by the way
fascinatin
really was
drinks after
likewise
copper fastened
my
already
earwiggin notion
that
some jobs
worth it
others
mine
Good natured son of a guns.
The usual suspects at it again.
Has Nemanja broken a leg yet?
Deulofeu to even it out with a
last minute own goal?
howdy bt8
hope yer well
Just read the Guest spot by Trev. Brilliant and insightful read. Excellent piece. Good stuff.
cba tis lovely
to see you
alive and
kickin’
but more
pertinently
can the Toffees
be arsed??
Should be a game where you are supremely confident knowing that our squad is better than everton’s, but that is not enough anymore unfortunately.
Injuries and some heavy losses see the squad struggling and arsene completely out of ideAs. Arsene will go with the same game plan he does every match and not try any of the young guns for fear of ruining their confidence or some other bizarre reason, considering he builds the club on youth.
Everton on the other side have the younger newer switched on coach bringing a group of mid table players up with a complete re- haul of the clubs training methods pre match sessions and training times and the results are showing for the positive.
The big difference will be which side believes in their coach more – Everton and the new hired gun or arsenal and mr top 4 is good enough.
Should be another interesting ride as an arsenal fan.
Good review holic! Tough game up-acoming but 2 – 1 to us! Up the Arse!
Just hope we don’t come unstuck today.
unfortunately for Arsenal fans we were always going for the top four ‘prize’. Did Wenger know that Ramsey would be on fire at the start of the season and contribute to so many wins? Of course not. just another hit and miss season for the Arsenal fans.
I hope we come off with a win today. If only to relax the players for the high stakes game next week. And I bet you the media will be playing it up big time.
I just dont want to see the pained look on Arsene face before that match if we were to lose today.
@41
Which set of players believed in their coach more when we played them a month ago in the cup?
Elm Park, Up? The old south bank. Happy days 🙂
Current form is usually good form.
Don’t know too many bookies who talk about 1 week ago form, let one month ago form.
Anyway hopefully you are right N7 and month old form can be repeated.
Fingers crossed.
Think they are a very different proposition at their place. Not sure belief will come into it, suspect it’s going to be a proper ding dong.
My projection is that we can lose this and still finish fourth, but it’ll be bloody close if we do. Would be typical of recent seasons.
Hopefully the lads can scrap out at least a point and send us into the Wigan game a bit more comfortable.
COYG!
First goal is going to be massive. If we grab it the pressure is all on them.
At least I got the team right 🙂
Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Monreal, Arteta, Flamini, Rosicky, Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud.
Substitutes: Viviano, Jenkinson, Bellerin, Kallstrom, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Sanogo
I think belief in your self, your team mates and especially your managers strategy has everything to do with it at this time of the season.
Talk of losing this match and still finishing fourth or acceptance of taking a point v a standard mid table Everton side at home whilst fighting for fourth spot shows where our belief is.
Says it all.
Cheers H! Come on you Arsenal!
Good afternoon gentlemen, very nervous about this one.
As usual, here is the selection of streams
http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?matchid=253527&part=sports
and
http://livetv.sx/en/eventinfo/224051_everton_arsenal/
This match being early kick off and away it gives me proper shits to be honest, really hope boys are going to be switched on right from the start.
pints disappearing
.
COME ON YOU REDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
Come on Arsenal this is a test to ace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COYGs
Win this and third is still on.
Tough game in prospect, no doubt. Think there’ll only be a goal in it either way at the end, but it could be a 2-3 or a 3-4 squeaker. Praying it goes our way. Winning today would keep the hopes for 3rd alive; losing means a scrap for 4th will go down to the wire.
Eandy, the current top Sky Sports Wiziwig Flash link tried to drop a ‘Trojan’ on me, first time I can remember that happening in a long while, if at all… Be wary people.
Come on lads!
Poldi too eager to shoot
has to be yellow for foul on Arteta
OUch!
FUCK FUCK FUCK
Shit
Whar did Vermaelen think he was doing? Leaving that ball?
Just turned the TV on at 13 minutes, they score at 14 !
Come on Arsenal – not again, far far too easy.
Now we know why our captain has sat on the bench for so long and only picked due to injury to others.
Clueless and hesitant as always
He is a better midfielder than he is a back
Noone on Baines – do they know he makes about half their goals ?
Noone stops the cross – again.
This is truly pissing me off.
Giroud has to at least hit the target!
oh ffs OG
Come on Arsenal
Decent cross from Monreal to …. Oh, noone
Come on lads sort those misplaced passes don’t panic
Think I’ll shut up
Trev went down far too easy should never happen
Would be good to level before ht but not looking like it to be honest
Wow. Cannot even get out of out own half.
Fuck sake sort it out Jesus
We look weak and clueless shambles
Get it together boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Come On!
We look awful.
Everton playing like … Well, we used to.
what a save by Woj but Baines and co have free reign on that left side goddammit
Utter crap!
Fucking awful well deserved
6 arsenal backs and one Everton forward
Same old result
Ball watchers and no defensive strategy
Shameful
A fucking shapeless shambles.
Wonderful goal. We used to do that.
appaling, well and trully appaling
Playing us off the park.
We have nothing going forward.
Damage control time.
very bad defense , really bad !
Playing us off the park.
We have nothing going forward.
Good thing we steadied the ship against city.
Another tennis actor incoming?
Sorry. Double dipped there.
Its 545 am on the west coast.
Vermaelen can leave whenever he likes.
Are we focking chelski? We playing PSG? Should have never let Lukaku run through!
Frustrating !
Only a ramsey or rosicky piece of individual brilliance can help arsene and arsenal now.
Absolute junk so far. Desperately need a goal before HT
Lukaku showing exactly why you need a forward with pace we are so so so pedestrian it’s truly painful to watch – Still hope yet mind if we can nick one back they may retreat into their shell to try and hold on !
Plying with no striker. Again. This is brain dead. Time might be up, 4th or not, sadly 🙁
Well said @ 88
Painful to watch
and Flamster out of Wigan game ..there you go oh well
So not a yellow. No contact.
And naiamith is a little cheating shit.
Flamini booked for less than Naismith did to Arteta …. Surprise, surprise
No desire no speed in our passing tippy tippy
Please blow for HT
We do not even have a defensive shape to speak of.
They make it up each attack.
I love my club but this season I can’t remember being as ashamed of their performances as I have in the big games this season. You get the impression Martinez has prepared a meticulous tactical plan and Wenger has sent them out to play as they always do
Well not a lot we can say we were shit and changes need to be made wrong tactics deployed yet again! Arsenal I hope you will make right choices.
Vile stuff there. Let’s hope they claw it back second half.
UTA
Nice save by Howard there at the death. That woulda been just what we needed. Cannot believe how flat we look.
Judge Dreadful.
Too many key players out injured! Either keep em fit or have the replacements ready. Here’s hoping its taken cared of next season!
We can still come back in the 2nd half! Give it to Poldi.. he’ll shoot at least!
never mind us scoring but we can’t even keep a clean sheet, thought a draw away at goodison would have been a good result for us today. Not sure what was Varmalem doing letting the ball pass him for the second goal. i would bring on the OX and Ramsey for thesecond half and just go for it……
This is more painful than my effing leg.
Absolutely dreadful
Vermaelen has turned from verminator into spectator.
Podolski, who I really like, is always on the wrong foot against a deep back four. Get him on the right, put The Ox on the left. Rambo cannot be worse than Arteta – take Giroud off, he looks completely gone.
Needs to be done now though.
Sorry, not normally this down, but this is shocking.
If you can find a positive out of that you are a better man than me.
Got to agree, ttg.
As dr F said last week.
We are tier 2 and tier 3
Martinez has the team believing in everything he says.
Their best player delefeo is yet to come on
I did not expected us to win this. But this is just awful.
Arteta would not even be a starter for a team like West Ham.
Arsenes down the middle attack is now not an attack.
Evertons defensive shape looks very similar to how ferguson defended us and how mourinho defends us and how rogers now defends us
Trev changes are screaming to be made but will they?
Flamini might as well go off of the two out of him and Arteta. Both have been miserable but Flamini is booked so…
To be honest, he could them all off none of them is having a good game apart from possibly Sagna.
Too many players not good enough. Monreal, Vermaelen, Flamini and Arteta, Podolski, Rosicky, Giroud. Cazorla trying too hard because the others around him are playing so poorly.
It’s all a bit worrying, this.
Three half time changes (not happening) and pray for no injuries.
Ox, Ramsey and Sanogo on. Flamini, Arteta and Giroud off, stick Podolski up front in a two with Sanogo, put Rosicky and Cazorla wide and have Ox and Ramsey in the middle.
It can;t be any worse
We need a goal and fast.
2 years ago I thought we had weathered the storm of paying down the stadium and fully expected wenger to show his class again leading us to titles. Thought we would win it pre season. Thought we would grit it out before stoke. Even had a nibble at 200/1 yesterday. I’m obviously a fool for believing.
Deluding ourselves if you think a performance this bad is due to injures. Just look at the 11 we have out. Can’t keep saying players are letting arsene down, this is ghastly brain dead management tactically and motivationally. Hate saying it, but I can’t see another explanation. (Ignoring the money in the bank in that.)
Theo’s comments earlier on goals Sunday said a lot: we only ever go out to attack, no matter how badly we keep getting beaten down. He was also visibly disappointed we didn’t invest on jam, as theo said, replacing his pace was a clear need.
Gutted it is ending like this. FA Cup looks a long way off now, we have no bottle.
No subs. What a clown.
Come On!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe it. Not a single change.
WTF Arsene???
Not dooming by the way, just my opinion politely expressed.
COME ON!
Come on!
Lets turn this one up. We need a fucking goal and a quick one too
We have no pace come on Arsene
No subs
No surprise
This isn’t the type of game where Arsene should be waiting till the 70th minute to make changes.Rambo and Ox on immediately. Giroud looking desperately ineffective. We’ve just let Everton boss it around us.
60% possession, 2 shots on target and losing 2 nil????
Do we ever learn????
No midfielder on the right hand side for their first goal. Not that Baines is an attacking full back or anything.
Midfielders wandering around the pitch with no discipline.
Where has that been said recently?
The tactical part of our game has been cruelly exposed by too many teams away, in and around us, from home this season for it to be chance or just bad luck with injuries.
Hopeless
We not even pressing them this is fucking awful
We don’t even press with any belief or spirit.
We Just go through the motions waiting for a piece of individual brilliance.
Our attack is now boring to watch
WTF! We’re breaking slower that an exhausted porpoise!
Get with it guys! COME ON!!!!!!!!!
Naismith is a dirty cheat. But TV 5 better be careful.
this is nadir of our attacking play seriously -_-
Two great mistakes and we fuck it up as well
Defender like this Stones guy and you still can’t score?
press them more!
Arteta,BFG and Vermaelen really need to step up and take leadership. They need to be marshaling others into their roles and try to make something out of this poor performance. Unfortunately 2 of them are having a pretty pathetic game so far.What’s really disappointing is that Wenger hasn’t made any changes to tactics or formation that are clearly not working like they haven’t against City,Chelsea and Liverpool disasters before this.
But all we need is one goal to get back into this. We really need to get a point at best from this. Poldi and Ox are the best bets for getting us back into this.
we are putting ourselves under the pressure by misplacing easy passes
Wtf is OG doing on the flank?
FFS book barry b
And where is the attack? TR7 was basically alone running there.
Ha! Giroud just won a corner. Haven’t realized he was playing
Bunch idiots Jesus
Take Giroud off… he’s too busy complaining and not playing!
ARghhhhhhhhhhh!
Subs please fucking subs
This is just dreadful for arsenal.
Poor all the way around.
And im so sick of watching Giroud chirp at the referees.
Shut up and make a decent pass instead.
Subs
Pure comedy!
What the fuck!. Arteta?!?!?!
Game over.If we go on like this then we can kiss 4th place good bye
What a bunch of clueless people ha ha
We hold on to the ball too long (and lose it!) and have absolutely no pace!
We deserve to lose this one!
okay ..game over, this really is fucking atrocious display …I hope I will eat my words at the end of the season but we are really falling apart
Embarrassing
Where those subs?
Arsene, don’t bother to sub someone. Just leave! Enough is enough
3-0 away to Everton? Injuries have nothing to do with this, they outplayed us at home, so no suprise there.
I’d say Martinez has passed his interview quite well, wouldn’t you?
The king is dead, long live the king!
I wonder what reason arsene will use not to count his loss.
After all we have only really been beaten once this season by Liverpool.
He is a dinosaur at his own game
why we always wait until 60min before change
Out defense are doing a good job at allowing lukaku to move onto his left.
Brilliant boys
Total shambles.
Everton are dominating this game.
C’mon arsenal, get one back then kick on FFS
Tactically pathetic- what is the second half plan? This is awful because we are being tossed aside by a club with significantly less resource than we have. Subs on twenty minutes too late
Take OG at once where are those fucking subs Jesus ? Arsene stop being an idiot for crying out loud!
Arteta not subbed. Classic.
I find it hard to criticize Giroud who has done his level best in leading the front line on his own with zero rest and support. It has left him absolutely knackered and prone to pathetic displays like this.
If nothing else can we just buy Lukaku from Chelsea because he has passed his audition for the role of being an actual striker. Much needed competition and also support for Giroud.
Arteta’s legs are gone…running in mud
Why the hell would martinez want to manage this bunch of half assed joggers?
We need a new striker… a proper one this time!
Welsh Jesus has done more in these brief moments forward then the rest of the team combined.
Taking poldi off and leaving giroud on was idiotic.
Take selfies on the pitch post game you basically asked for this shit. 13 goals he’s picked out in 4 games since 🙁
no idea why people are surprise , we have been playing mosty shit for the last 2 1/2 month and everton have been cruising in the last few weeks .
Why does wenger wait for ever to make change even thing doesnt work out
worry about everton coming back behind us and worst of all if our form doesnt improve fast MU could be there too
Tom Howard’s playing hey….
Didn’t notice
Everton has lukauku.
We have sonogo.
(Face in palm…)
Lost for words
How are Giroud and Arteta still on?We’re essentially playing with 9 men on the pitch. And what a sad way for Sanongo to be subbed into a dead match with nothing to play for?
Alarming to consider that after successfully navigating so many pitfalls in his coaching career, the boss stands to be undone by listless young millionaires who can’t be arsed to intelligently give their best energy for him. This after over a week between games…wow.
bmbd
We dont deserve to qualify for UCL…
It is not all bad. We have Kallstorm on the bench. You know, the guy that we signed when no one else was available in January.
Except the fella who scored one goal and had two assist yesterday for Chelsea. The fella who has the speed to replace Walcott. Salah. For fucking 10m.
Or maybe Matic, who is one of the best in the world in DM position. But, why bother, we have Arteta there.
Pathetic.
We are chasing shadows
Ha ha this is a joke
imao he take flamini and leave arteta who doesnt the legg anymore. ffs flamini is out for 2 game .why he get sub!!!
Everton has delafeo we have kallistrom
Face in Palm
Hahaaaaaaaaaaaa Sanogo. This is pure comedy.
Chelski bought back Matic for 25 million and there’s no way we’d have stumped up that much cash for him. Salah though was a good buy and one we should have made.If Kallstrom can’t make it to the team by being subbed on then what on earth was the point of buying him?
Feel sorry for the away fans they should refund them everything including refreshments.
Our goal difference is now… worse than ManU!
WHAT?
189 – yep
Per looks very dodgy as well
The goals conceded against good teams this season – the top 5 especially is telling.
AW is being out managed.
And the players Have been shocking. Only exceptions being sagna, rosicky and ramsay.
Sick to my ears with this fucking garbage
They have nothing to offer NOTHING!
The pressure on this team to win the FA cup has now risen 100000 fold.
BB, no matter how strange it sounds at the moment, there is a strong chance that United will finish higher than of us.
CMDrunk
Let’s not talk about the FA Cup yet we need to get to the final first
The only joke with arsenal is that there are still those who believe arsene somehow deserves another few years…
I have this sinking feeling that 4th is in danger….
It is confounding as to why we play with no heart and no desire when we meet the top teams. It can’t be tactics alone, the players just for lack of better words… do not show up!!!!!
Very frustrating!
Did say AW’s talk of “righting the ship” after a week where we took 2/9 points and conceded 9 times was a worry. Times when saying nada is better than dripping flagrant shit that bites you in the arse.
Ho-hum. 4th and the cup now will feel like a result at least, if we manage it.
I heard last week that other teams fans were warning arsenal fans not to let arsene go or you could end up worse.
I reckon other managers hope that he stays…
I am not putting much faith in the FA cup.. to win those types of competition you need heart and desire… none of which we have at the moment!
At least get a goal … come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Arsene will as usual take the blame for this but surely overall we heard it all before
How barkley didnt see yellow is a total farce.
And then change nothing ATG.
He has been getting out managed for way too long.
Arsenal FC is now the butt of all media jokes and back page headlines.
And rightly so.
IT is clear that we miss those key players… any injury and our team falls apart dramatically!
Get replacements! Would be unforgivable if this continues next season!
Have spent enough time in recent posts on the absence of Power in this side, and the contrast between the two teams in this match was painfully obvious. But there’s another P word that’s more worryingly absent recently….
Purpose.
See any out there in red and white lately?
Bunch of over paid pre madonnas and a manager who lost the plot!
Blow the whistle ref!
No offside goal should have stood all to late not even worth talking about!
I don’t care what people’s expectations were at the beginning of the season, to be top of the league in Feb and to then collapse in the manner we have is beyond unacceptable.
@181 re Woj, can’t agree more.
Why does arsene just sit there when it’s so obvious we are lacking any shape or discipline.
It’s madness.
They are properly taking the piss. Everton. Taking the piss.
Next weekend is gonna be such an uncomfortable watch now.
Useless c*nts, to a man.
YEs and the refs a C…….. as well but then we already know this, its not something new.
Arsene shake Martinez hand, with a smile… Well, it was a comedy after all, wasn’t it, let us all have a good laughter.
it’s all been said already
despair
despair
Conceded 8 goals in Liverpool this season, 7 in Manchester and 7 away to the 2 other top half London sides.
Dress that up any way you like.
Last 2 transfer windows look disastrous now. Got nowhere near what we needed and led 100 million collecting interest. Shambolic approach, sadly.
This is what happens when you don’t bolster your squad when injuries pile up even a loan deal. Got what we deserved!
Real doubts about FA Cup now, this proved to me that Arsene needs to pack his bags!
Now, I am not normally an AW out sort, but this match is just a crushing blow. Soo important and we just sleep walked into it.
Another embarrassing arsenal performance. Huge arsenal choke. The usual arsenal late season choke.
AW needs to go. Sorry folks. This was just a massive fuck up. And while the players were all pretty much crap, AW had nothing on offer to stop the damage.
Disgusted with this team. Fucking shyte. Refund the away support.
Worst loss against everton in 25 years.
Arsenal needs a clean out and it needs to start at the top.
I need a drinkh…gimme lots of that black stuff…!
Wigan will be smiling
I don’t want to hear a word from Arteta today regarding performances and wanting to put right poor displays.
I don’t believe anything that comes out of the mouths of those connected with our club.
We were never in that game – not for the first time.
Sigh. Oh fuck it, why bother.
Whatever Everton do can you see this team winning all their remaining games. We saw a manager completely out coach Wenger today and it’s a theme that may persuade him that new contract shouldn’t be signed. Personally I would love Wenger to go out on the high note he deserves by winning the Cup and qualifying for the CL but then I think he ought to think about whether he can take this club any further. He is a deeply honourable man and the last few weeks will
have wounded him
Very disappointing. Season now official unravelled. Whenever we looked like getting back into the game we gave away a goal and killed the recovery stone dead. Always a sign of a team running on empty or ‘just a little bit short’.
One other thing, regardless of whether you think Giroud is the second coming of TH14 or of Francis Jeffers, buying a new striker won’t make any difference if he gets the same lack of support that Giroud has been getting. If there is a slither of comfort to be had from that game it is that Ramsey’s return seemed to pull the whole team forward when we were attacking.
A lot of people are blaming wenger (probably with just cause) BUT i say look at the players… 3rd rate at best! We didn’ have any desire to win this one… change of personnel needed, at least for the backups!
what is the point of finishing 4th…..we are not going to win the CL. should it be that bad if didnt finish in the top 4. maybe it’s a wakeup call that the Arsenal board needs. For the fans whether we finish 4 or 5 Arsene will not invest the money to buy top players. every year we hear Arsene has 70mil or 100ml to spend, but doesn’t get spent………he only bought Ozel to get the fans off his back.
off out to curse at the waves
cheers ‘hol an all
hope your bionic leg
is snarlin for action trev
fuckin
fuckin arsenal
I want to hear N7 & BTM’s assessment on this & a few of the others on here with that “sunnyside” attitude. Everything good chaps? Just one game, right?
Out-played, out-fought and out-thought.
Time to get the shortlist drawn up…..
Simply not good enough nothing more nothing less – The players and the club have simply been going through the motions for far to long always just about getting by, The end of the season needs to bring big changes throughout the playing staff and if Wenger still wants to pursue his non spending policy he should be changed too – £150 million in the bank and we have to play two holding midfielders as either is good enough and have absolutely fuck all up top, Utterly piss poor management from those that run the club.
Fair play Everton. They were by far the better team. If they win their games against City and United, they will deservedly be in fourth place.
As for Arsenal. No matter if we win the FA, no matter what position in the league we finish, considering what I saw this season, Arsene needs to go.
It would be fair if he wins the FA Cup before he goes and shut every ones mouth, though. Including mine.
AGT@199: Mertesacker doesn’t look anything like the defender when paired with Vermaelen that he does when Koscienly is playing.
Totally embarrassing, yet again! Out-managed and tactically out-thought, yet again! Utterly Embarrassing! Deserved defeat! Well played Everton! CL qualification and 4th place well and truly under threat now! Ox and Rambo should’ve come on sooner and Sanogo for the lumbersome Giroud; less pedestrian and clueless after their introduction!
Mertesaker looks Championship quality at best without Kos and Nacho is not a full back! Arteta’s now a squad player at best with his legs having gone! Never a covering central midfielder! Poor poor match all-round! Sorry, yet again, for the Gooners that made the early morning trip up there to watch that gutless and shambolic display!
No pace upfront in the middle and so easy to defend against!
Makes you wonder why what was essentially the same team as went toe-to-toe with Citeh last week could barely put a foot right a week later.
@233
Believe me, you don’t want my assessment – of the team, or of you.
i wanna be sedated
in ears
on walk
how apt
joey knows
I wonder how many times it will have to be said before people get it…
If our board is so stubborn, so obstinate in their ways when we’re finishing fourth, what on God’s blue and green earth makes you think they’ll change their ways if we finish in a position less than that?
If it’s bad now (and don’t get me wrong, it very much is), it will only be exponentially worse if that dark scenario comes to pass.
I don’t envy you having to write this one up ‘holic.
Tough talk N7. Talk your way out of this one.
Pffft. Enjoy your afternoon chum.
Time to get the shortlist drawn up…..
1. Klopp
That’ll do.
Come on the Hammers, please prick that Liverpool-loving bubble! The weekend’s now been relegated to schadenfreude for some positivity!
Simeone & Martinez would also do.
The game was lost in my eyes when no changes were made at half time. The malaise present in the team from the first half showing had no chance of being shifted when it most needed to be with fresh players on the pitch. I don’t see why Arsene didn’t make the half time changes like I can see why even though he’s banned for the next 2 games, Flamini came off instead of Arteta (the probablity of a yellow card being converted into a red).
A poignant moment in the 2nd half was when Sagna worked himself into space to cross and his only target was Giroud, surrounded by at least 5 Everton players. Not one of our midfielders arriving in the box.
Another one, Ramsey playing the reverse ball into the final third in the second half and Rosicky himself, blessed with a great change of pace and a positive attacking attitude didn’t make the anticipatory run onwards to receive it.
It’s like the spirit has been drained out of the players themselves over the last few weeks, and it hasn’t been inspired back into them by the man who should be aiming to do just that.
Feels like the end days in more than one way, and it honestly pains me to say that.
Vinny @233,
Can I try as a sunny-sider?
We were by far the better team, and that prick referee cost us a goal, because Sanogo was never offside. We were in the game, but those corrupted FA referees are so dreadful.
And all the media hate us. They were wrong from the start, with claims that we aren’t title material, but we showed them wrong, didn’t we, as the FA Cup is our this year.
Arsene was right to start Arteta because he is our best player for the whole season and Giroud is great, but he is so jaded and doesn’t have any service.
And it is no Arsene’s fault. It is players fault. They play like shyt.
If someone tells you that it was Arsene who bought this players who play like shit, just tell him to fyck off, because Arsene is the manager for 30 years and the others doesn’t know shyt.
Also there was no need to sign someone in January, because no one was available. If someone tells you that most of the players are available and you only need to show up with the money, tell him that he knows nothing, and that is not the proper way to run a football club. We may end like fycking Leeds ffs.
And we are in this position because of injuries, but you can’t blame Arsene for injuries, because…. well because you just can’t.
And fuck Everton with their oil money, they can buy whoever they want but can’t buy clas… oh wait.
Just wanted to perhaps rephrase my desire that Arsene should pack his bags in my earlier post. Perhaps it was very harsh but he’s the man who should motivate these players and today was clearly evident that he can’t do that anymore! Not for the first time this season, now there is either a problem among the players (seems somehow not true as there is a great spirit in the team apparently) or the management is completely doing things the wrong way. It seems to me is the second one here is at fault.
I would love to see Wenger triumph and stay longer but upon seeing the game this arvo and clearly we were in need of a reshape at half time he didn’t bother to make those subs until 66th-67th minute when we went down 3 nil and when it was already too late to make any impact.
The man deserves a MEDAL for what he has done at Arsenal don’t get me wrong but you just can’t deploy such bad tactics when so much is at stake.
We simply lost desire to play football now who’s fault is it? Arsene’s or the players?
We started the second half without putting any pressure on them for me that was a key sign that he obviously didn’t say much at half time.
It was utter shit to watch this bag of over paid players who either can’t play footy or simply don’t have a clue anymore. No wonder we loose top players every season. We always collapse one way or the other. So what happened to the Arsenal that played this beautiful game at the beginning of the season? Surely the players didn’t become shit just over 8 months?
We do a need a manager who will finally recognise and rectify the deficiencies in this team. 99% of us have recognised, but the 1 man who can rectify has repeatedly failed to.
We’ve been teetering on the brink for the past few seasons. If this is not the season where our luck runs out, then next season almost certainly will be.
@251 TBA
It doesn’t matter who of us supporters is right or wrong. Sunnysider or a moaner, who cares.
Arsenal is all that matters, and Arsenal is not where we all want them to be, I guess. We are seeing the same failings year after year. Absolutely no improvement. No one fears us any more. We are being ridiculed game after game. Everton just beat us comfortably 3-0 ffs.
Something needs to change.
It was clear early in the season that Ramsey was the glue that held it all together. The reason for our early success was due to him being the ultimate box-to-box player in the form of his life. The amount of positive thinking he brought onto the field was miles ahead of the rest.
I say if Wenger should stay he needs to build a team of fast and strong players that can both attack fast and defend well. And he should be doing this with the Özil/Rambo-combo in mind. We can’t have Cazorlas/Podolskis/Artetas attacking/defending anymore, it’s to slow and predictable. In todays game you need someone who can carry the ball aswell as finding the space to recieve or deliver passes. We simply have no combinations to breakthrough the first line of defence.
All in all a shit day, in a so far shit year. 2013 seems very distant now.
Only positive was Ramsey. I’m confident he’ll carry us to the FA-cup and a 4th place.
253
We are the most special football club in the world. That’s the point
253, unfortunately, there appears no point apart from being an investment in Kroenke’s portfolio. Hopefully AW will do the right thing. He has been our best Manager ever but all good things come to an end.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger: “Everton were better, sharper and deserved to win. The only time we looked like coming back into the game was in the second half, then we gave an easy goal away. Then that was it.
“It will be difficult to finish in top four but first we have to focus on the quality of our performances.
“I wouldn’t question the spirit of this team but we have lost something on the confidence front. We looked disjointed when we had to run after the score. The other big defeats away from home have taken some of the charisma from this team.”
@238 Danc
Mertesaker looks Championship quality at best without Kos
Exactly. Kos is our best defender by far. His covering of Mertesacker errors and weaknesses was unnoticed by many till the moment Vermaelen took his place.
BB
So it’s the players fault then I take it?
Arsene definitely deserves the FA Cup. Hope we win it for him more than anything else.
It’s a fitting end, if sooner and less pot-filled than I ever imagine in august.
Obvious we had deep deep problems after the chav result, especially given what we did at anfield.
Klopp please.
Top team across Europe all heavily invested in high quality attackers, not 2 or 3, but 7 or 8 in their squads. We need to match up here. Ox, theo, ozil a start, but you can see how much we need to add, both quality and quantity.
Knopp or any other top manager will start by reforming our central midfield. Got to give ourselves a platform to play from.
@250 – why would we end up like Leeds, we are not in debt, we have a billionaire owner? Arsenal charge their fans the most money for a season ticket and individual tickets than any other club in the PL. Arsenal have sold most of their best players over the years and made huge profits, they then buy replacements much cheaper. Arsenal are the only club the in PL that makes a profit every year. Yes they had the stadium to pay off, but the whole idea for moving to a new stadium was to compete with the best and not to scrap for 4th place every year. As for whom to blame the players or Wenger, it is Wenger that needs to be accountable for our poor run. He would take the credit if we were 1st in the PL so he needs to take full responsibility of his teams failure. You look at any other manager, they are in the technical area shouting instructions to their players, our manager thehighest paid manager in the PL and in europe just sits there in his seat looking clueless
The one big positive today was seeing the return of Ramsey. Hopefully he’ll carry the team for the rest of the season. At least instill some fighting qualities.
Defensive midfielders. Pivots. Box-to-box. In modern football they have to be fast, mobile and accurate with their passing. Just have to be. Kind of sad to see the man with introduced the greatest prototype of that role in English football is now haplessly at the mercy of highly talented attacking mid player but physically way past his prime trying and failing in that role repeatedly.
As myself and others had suggested earlier, we should have started with Poldi down the middle, move Santi up (he was resorted to have to play from the fucking middle of the pitch, embarrassing) , and allow Ox to run down the right. Poldi’s greatest strength is finishing and biggest weakness is defensive discipline, and it was expected that Everton will play high up as they needed this victory more, and Giroud is so out of form and fitness there was no point playing him in that hold-up role especially without any runners down the middle or down the wing.
It is not just the defeats, but the sheer boring and embarrassing predictability of the performances that is becoming unbearable.
“Giroud is so out of form and fitness there was no point playing him in that hold-up role especially without any runners down the middle or down the wing.
It is not just the defeats, but the sheer boring and embarrassing predictability of the performances that is becoming unbearable.”
This.
Klopp or the Gervinho Whisperer at Roma failing that, but mainly Klopp please.
The day has just got even worse, we have just lost the Davis Cup tie. I was looking forward to a Semi Final Tie at Wimbledon but now I and AFC are facing a really difficult Semi next week at Wembley.
Everton really wanted the win, they were faster to the ball, created and took their chances. We were quite dreadful, only Rambo’s brief cameo cheered me up.
The BFG looked lost without Kos and the Arteta/Flamini combo was caught out on numerous occasions due to poor positioning and lack of pace.
We were so devoid of ideas and our lack of pace on the flanks has been our failing for most of the season. Oh for a fit Theo and why wasn’t The Ox brought on at half time. Oh Why!
Arsene you are looking at Thursday night/ Sunday football at best next season , that is if you intend to stay?
See you all at Wembley on Saturday.
COYRs
@260 that’s Harsh.
CB work best as a partnership. TV5 has been a liability no matter who he plays alongside. I remember the San Siro mauling we took with him and Kos at CB. There’s lots of pairings in that position where one player compensates for something the other doesn’t have.
The problem is not merely confined to TV5. Like many have pointed out the CM/DM position can be made to look ridiculously average against faster technically capable players.
At the end it all comes down to the manager I’m afraid. You cannot keep sending players on the pitch with seemingly no instructions on the tactical side of the game. If they are sent out there and not doing their job you would expect the manager to be out in the tech area getting players back into position. Instead nothing.
The teams urgency reflects that of the management and at no point during any of the important games we’ve played this season do you get the feeling the management are furious or seek to correct the obvious mistakes taking place on the pitch.
Is Steve Boult not allowed to call it as he sees it?
Lovegood @256, good points regarding Ramsey and the need for pace.
Dr F @266, spot on points and that’s what hurts the most! The man who innovated and revolutionised the modern game in Britain has now fatally deviated from the principles he brought in. Very confusing and sad to see!
Give a fuck.
I’m still Arsenal and Klopp is still a fucking weird looking fucking shit house german cunt.
Boys vs Men used to be the cry on the pitch.
That’s extended to the tech area now, but more like Men vs Dinosaur.
So sad. Really is.
Last one tonight: I was told 2/3 days ago on here that discussing what went wrong last summer and in January and where we go from here was a boring prospect. Unavoidable now I’d say. Optimism is thinking we can work that out and respond, not pretending it didn’t happen.
UTA
When all else fails reach for the lowest common denominator eh Esso? Classy. Unfortunately some things never change.
@261 andya
Some would not recognize irony even if she is parading in front of you, half naked, wearing pink boots with high heels and playing Strauss’s “The Blue Danube” on the piano with her ass.
Heh North Bank 1 . You actually ever been in the North Bank, new or old? I doubt it. Why do you get personal with me? I don’t like Klopp, why should I? Got an answer to that?
@273 Lurky, i get it now….i asked for that one….lol
Waiting.
Never commented on here before but often check in to see what the real / realistic fans are saying…I have been an Arsenal man since the late 70’s but don’t get to many games anymore and most forums seem to be full of enthusiastic but msiguided johnny come latelys…always enjoy this one though.
Anyway introductions over….I have just been watching our game in the local pub and just wanted to observe that this is the first time I have ever seen a whole bar full of loyal Gooners (Young, Old and those in between) all turn on the manager as one – In the past there have been a few niggly comments (especially from the younger fans) but nothing like the out pouring of bile from all types of fan today.
FA Cup win or not I really get the feeling that today is a watershed moment for both Arsene and the club.
Why do we really need CL spot? We can’t play against top teams anyway? There is always something in those games that goes wrong.
Anyway enough of that we should be united in those tough times so let’s keep it friendly Holics.
Let’s have a nice Sunday afternoon everyone back to work tomorrow urghhhhh
@andya
Don’t blame you, I get the impression that no one is reading other people’s posts with required attention at the moments like this.
Today we are in this bar mainly to bring our own frustrations out. It is not such a bad thing though, just as long as we don’t turn against each other.
Which will happen I am afraid, if we fail to win against Wigan.
@279
Welcome to the bar, fella.
Can’t say I’m surprised to hear that. We were atrocious, and have played one good half of football in the last 8.
Here’s to better days.
Just back from Lille. So what the fuckity fuck happened, for Chrissake?
Doug
You’re a massive cunt. I’d like to remove your head, if I ever got a chance.
Time for a break, laters people. Maybe see some of you at Wembley next week.
bath – don’t ask. We were shit.
Did everything we needed not to do. Shipped an early goal, let in an atrocious second and played with no pace or movement until the game was gone.
Things improved when Ramsey and Ox came on, and Sanogo had one wrongly chalked off, but really bad day overall. Not altogether stunned by it either.
The Wigan game is now absolutely massive.
Another Liverpool penalty
New day raisins at 279, welcome and it is indeed a watershed moment.
Thanks N7. Now of all times FFS!
I think I shall go into media lockdown for 24h.
@Lurky – agreed, it’s good that ppl can voice their opinions on here and keep things civil, we do not want to see ppl turning on each other.
i hope we do beat Wigan in the semi as i have managed to get some tickets, it would be a long drive back to Yorkshire should we not reach the final.
Thanks for the welcome people. On the plus side three early afternoon pints of Guinness do seem to have cured my cold.
NDR
Who needs cold medicine 😉
Here’s the funny thing. We should still finish 4th and should win the FA Cup – which by default is a better season than the last 8.
The problems we have are in simple terms mostly related to pace and strength, that much is apparent. Oh yes and injuries, and you can bet your arse there will be more injuries next season. Although Arteta is the official poster child for our failure at the moment the biggest issue the season is we’re far too easy to defend against and look like scoring our fewest league goals since I don’t know when. Our overall defending is about where it has been for five or six years, good but not great. Our attacking play is far below where it has been for the last five or six years – fair but not good.
I feel sorry for Giroud – he’s been running on empty for about ten matches now and nobody is ever within twenty yards of him.
Forever the optimist, I think we’ll be better next year than this and at times even that will feel like shit at times too.
Liverpool sadly are showing how it’s done its a real shame we are at such a low at this time of the season. The best form of defence is attack and this is how we failed this season in he PL.
Looks likes Kole Toure will be the next ex Gooner to lift the Prem title, following on the heels of Nasri & RVP.
Tim @ 290
Looks about right to me.
We need to get our heads down now and drive for the finish line. Get players back as soon as possible.
Five winnable league games. Three of them at home. Possibly (hopefully) two more FA cup games.
The season can still end well for us, although I would hope that it’s quite evident that there are issues we need to address over the summer as a matter of urgency.
Never the easy way with us, is it?
Here’s hoping we can refind our legendary ‘mental stwength’ for that run in. Can’t say anything about our performance as I didn’t see it but given the result on top of the Liverpool and Chav performances, I fear that Wigan only need a couple of strong runners, some midfield strength and a little bit of ‘desire’.
That really will deliver the coup d’ingrace.
Despite the much feared implosion actually materializing, and despite being outplayed, outthought and outfought by top teams in away games, we can still manage to get to the 4th (Everton would drop some points from ManU, City and Southampton) and win the FA Cup.
Let us just forget the lack of foresight shown in January (who was expected to get Theo’s goals and assists? Who was expected to fill in Rambo’s box-to-box role), and the rather pathetic surrender of the title without a fight. For the next month or so let us just support this team over the line. Afterward I think Arsene and the club management would make the right decisions.
Kolo has already lifted a title Vinny after leaving Arsenal. If Pool wins the PL — I hope they won’t — Kolo would be teh first player to win for three teams in PL, I think.
With you there Dr F.
Let’s get this creaking edifice over the finishing line.
This summer they better had address the obvious deficiencies and no excuses.
Do I have faith that they can do either? Sadly no.
Lays on a through ball…
Suspect that goal won’t stand. There appears to be a moron on the pitch….
Bang
In the hope there is a recount.
Waited a couple of hours to post this to make sure it wasn’t overreaction – unfortunately I don’t think it was –
I can’t remember feeling this despondent about my team, my club, for a long long time.
We have a wonderful stadium, a wonderful tradition and a wonderful history. Over the last nine years though, there has been a peculiar transformation. The fantastic Invincibles of 2003-04 have been replaced by a succession of players who lack the mental fortitude to truly compete for anything.
Initially, a youth policy was forced on Arsene Wenger due to financial necessity. The egalitarian wage structure, designed to weld a young and deliberately starless group together, backfired on the manager, leaving him instead with a self satisfied bunch of youngsters, financially secure and unmotivated to either improve within The Arsenal or move and prove themselves elsewhere.
Others who arrived and showed promise, preferred to move for fatter pay packets to cash engorged rivals both at home and abroad.
Gradually the squad was reinforced with more experience and, we hoped, stronger, more determined minds. Finally, this season, we seemed to have accumulated a tight-knit if small squad of players who were really prepared to stand up and be counted.
Sadly, in far too many, though granted not all, of our big tests, they have simply laid down and rolled out of the way. Massive defeats against Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and now, most despairingly against Everton, have seen a team devoid of pace and power capitulate with nothing to offer.
That lack of physical attributes could be excused to an extent by our customarily awful injury record.
The lack of team shape, organisation, heart, fight and any sort of striking options in the squad cannot. A disjointed collection of players has taken to the pitch once too often for me, with an apparent lack of any sort of plan for themselves, or any awareness of their opponents’ strengths to guard against.
I have been so pleased and proud to have such an intelligent and decent man as Arsene Wenger as our manager. I have always wanted and trusted him to get it right. He has treated us to some wonderful players, and football we could only have dreamed of. He has rebuilt the old Arsenal into a club with the fantastic potential it now enjoys.
Whether it is due to the fatigue brought on by over 17 years of unstinting service, or just disappointment at the way some of these players have let him down, I don’t know. Today though, particularly, he looked spent.
Having failed to strengthen sufficiently last summer, he chose to add nothing to areas where we were exposed in January. Today, he looked as exhausted and uninspired as his last remaining unwounded soldiers did on the pitch.
I will hope for an amazing transformation of both manager and players during our now, ahem, easier run-in, and an equal transformation of our squad in the summer. Some fundamental change is needed – be it physical, mental, organisational, or all three.
Accuse me of anything you like after reading this – except, please, of not loving The Arsenal and wanting to see them playing again – win, lose, or draw – with fight and pride.
Hoping that this is photoshopped.
https://twitter.com/ChrisJennerr/status/452837963815469056/photo/1
It better be, because if it’s not, it says it all.
I lose my sleep because of Arsenal, I lose my appetite because of Arsenal, refusing to company my wife for a walk because of Arsenal, constantly humiliated because of Arsenal, change work shifts because of Arsenal, my life depends on fucking Arsenal.
And what do I get. No win for a month or more. Arsene shakes Martinez hand with a smile. And now this?!?!!?
Well, fuck them all.
Long way home from Goodison tonight. M6 is a car park. Magic to see Ramsey back.
Noclue,
Your name sums you up mate, I dont need to fight N7s battles for him and at times we disagree, but fuck off with comments like Mug to someone youve never met, Suppose its easy behind a keyboard tho hey,
Have some respect, noclue. You are completely out of order. Your ability to post here is due to H’s efforts.
Good post Trev. I share your pain.
Sensible analysis by Tim @290 , Dr F and by N7. We have to lift ourselves. We have very beatable teams to play for the rest of the season but even if we beat them all we need to remember what went wrong today and in the other thrashings.
Dr. F ‘s point about midfielders is spot on. Wenger redefined midfield play but it has largely passed him by recently. We lack pace at both ends of the pitch and power in the middle.
Wenger has made some gigantic mistakes this season. He has failed in two windows to get adequate striking options and we lack drive in midfield. At the start of the season Flamini seemed an answer but his lack of top quality has been exposed against the best teams. Not to strengthen from a position of such opportunity in January was negligent . At the time we shrugged and smiled because Arsene had his mojo back but the last few weeks has emphasised that tactically and in terms of preparation and training he is no longer the master.
I was very impressed with the way Martinez set his side up today. He had clever ideas about unbalancing us. They had width and drive and they kept the ball well. They won as they pleased and it hurt but if Wenger does leave Martinez must be a candidate- if he would leave where he is now. It’s hard to evaluate who might be a contender though because I want Wenger to leave on a high and not in a situation like this where a great manager is being pilloried by all and sundry.
We need to sort things out by Saturday. I do hope Kos is fit and we can start Ramsey and the Ox. That is a HUGE game now
That was not the way I wanted to spend my Sunday afternoon. Horrible performance.
We lack speed and without Kos we also struggle for stability at the back. I think we’ll still get 4th but that’s mainly because of Everton’s fixture list.
Giroud has had some good games for us but he’s far from what we need. And the back up on that position is a joke. AW seems to have forgotten that all his great sides we’re fast. I love Arsene but I’m getting mighty tired of defending him.
Trev,
Nail, Head Firmly Hit,
Right im outta here, it seems some take great pleasure in watching the club they support get beat.
Noclue – strange you never drop into The Tollie to enlighten us. People have done – from all over the world, but you …….. oh yeah …..
Awful performance and it for some strange reason it makes me yearn for a sparse Clock End circa 1984 watching a 0-0 against some team that is now in league 3. At least I could afford to go, and decide to go on the Friday before. We’re not in good shape at the moment but in the history of the club its just a lean period. A lean period that saw other things happening in the game that screw with the patience of supporters. We still do things our way, when Arsenal plan for the future its for the next 75 years. I have to ignore the likes of the clubs above us, I still see one of them as a laughing stock, one as simply cherry picked and the other I always had a bit of respect for. Hate losing, hate being made to look bad but still support The Arsenal. I will leave the tactics to Arsene – if he sets up to outplay opponents and the players respond with these displays then I’d really like to see the next training session and what goes on and what gets said.
Haha, sensitive soul aren’t we Esso?
Disliking Klopp is your perogative, the need to call him a German cunt to express that is where I take umbrage. Thought that would be obvious, but clearly not. Is it Klopp you don’t like to the fact he’s a German?
If you feel I pick on you then perhaps this isn’t the first time you have made your disdain for foreigners felt a little too strongly for my liking. It’s all opinions I know but I would ask you respect the fact that not everyone that supports the team is English and born at The Whittington Hospital.
As for ever been on the north bank, is that the best you could do? Tell you what, post your email and I’ll send you over a few pics of me in the North bank old and new and a few old ticket stubs connected to programs.
Once I’ve proved that, is it then okay to call out your small mindedness?
“at the moment we lack a bit of confidence to be really dangerous and we lack penetration as well.”
2 days after, “we turned a corner.”
I preferred the media silence after the 6-0 to be honest, not sure this talk serves any purpose.
It really wasn’t supposed to end like this 🙁
Cheers Chippy, much appreciated, but ignore the geezer.
He’s just after a reaction. Starve him of that and he’s just a bloke sat at his keyboard on a Sunday night, wanking and crying.
Have a drink on me – here’s to better days.
@TTG
Great post.
I have to say that for me today had the feel of a manager passing an audition, just as it did when Wigan beat Everton in the cup last season. He’s clearly a very good manager and will end up at an even bigger club than the one he’s already at.
Oh, and in case it’s not yet been said: well played Everton. Very good team.
Cheers fella ill take you up on that although im going to be rather miserable company 🙂 Yep should ignore it but seeing the club we are all meant to love lose and lose like that fucking hurts but what makes it worse is when people revel in it !
Indeed they are and will be all the sweeter ! As sure as night follows day we will be back.
Keep it short
Just get rid of Wenger and we will progress from there
It might take a few years but we just can’t go on like this
Lurky @305
I hear you, loud & clear.
That photo’s actually giving me the creeps.
I can even understand why Viviano and Kalstrom don’t give a fuck… but Oxlade and Ramsey?!
Waaaaay out of line.
@Chippy
Some folk would rather be proved right than see Arsenal win. Will never understand it.
We are playing like shit right now. We just need to hope we can find a way to lift it – the season’s not blown yet, but a couple more bad results and it may well be.
Days like this I wish I could pull on a shirt and boots myself.
I wish you could as well N7 @323.
What Trev said @304.
We certainly need more power and pace for the Premiership. Our present team seems more cut out for the Champions League. Perhaps we should have a CL team like we have a cup team and then play the big, fast types in the Prem.
Also, when Vermaelen plays Mertesacker seems a less demonstrative organizer of the defence.
I wonder if the mgr has given the players the impression that he won’t be here at the end of the season?
Can’t understand why the attitude is so collectively poor since late Feb.
Trev @302, Spot on fella! Spot on! Have a consoling malt on my tab! Always helps in such sad moments I find.
Sorry, Trev @304.
Much vitriol in the bar today. Too much methinks. However, many well thought and well-put posts here too, as usual.
This team is struggling and the season shortens ever so quickly. Im thinking about supporting the club and the manager thru the season and then lets hope for a productive summer. Very productive.
A round on my tab for every Arsenal supporter in the bar today. Aw hell, its a Sunday: make em all doubles.
Cheers.
What can you say, one thing we all have to agree on is that this football club needs a new direction. And as much as it hurts me to say, I think the prof might have taken this club as far as he can. I have enjoyed and appreciated everything he did for this great club and will always own him all my gratitude, but there comes a time when one just has to call it quit. He should still be part of the organization in some form if he so desire but I just feel its time for change. Hopefully we will win the FA cup, don’t know if this group of players can achieve that, but such a promising season, what a shame. Could have, should have, would have just waited this whole season.
Cheers Dapper DanC,
As a heart man, would you recommend a consoling malt with my morphine, codeine, ibuprofen and paracetamol ? 😉
Perfect combo to ease a broken heart, Trev. What a trip you will have. Make sure the ibuprofen is on a full stomach tho.
Hard to to support Arsenal Football club at the moment.
There was a certain inevitability about the result as soon as the first goal went in. And failing to make any changes at half-time when 2-0 down sent the wrong message to the players. Its a lack of inaction such as that combined with an apparent lack of tactical preparation that makes me begin to question the great man. That and a reluctance to reinforce when it was obvious to everyone what was required.
I’m still hopeful for 4th and the FA Cup and I’ll continue to support AW, but he’s making it increasingly difficult to see the benefit he offers over someone else — like Martinez.
Not much to add except I think we had the slowest team in the Premier League this weekend. No pace. Barca can get away with it in La Liga when you have Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi. No way we can be competitive with the top teams in Premier League with so little pace.
So disappointed. The team looks like they quit after the first goal. Wasn’t until Ramsey came on did it look like there was a player that wanted to fight back and try to win.
I hope we don’t take this attitude into next weekend against Wigan.
Record v the Top 6.
P 10
W 1
L 5
D 4
GF 8
GA 23
7 points out of 30. Maybe that Top 4 spot might just be a little too ambitious.
This stuff is heartbreaking. A club that was once feared up and down reduced to a soft-centred second fiddle.
Have a look at the stats from 7am kickoff over on Arseblog, they do not make a very edifying read. Our average shots taken in the Prem has fallen by around 25% over 4 years, while shots allowed have seen a corresponding increase.
Even worse in the CL, where we clearly are just making up the numbers: the shots taken figure has actually dipped below shots allowed. That means we’re generally defending our arses off, and occasionally managing a pop at the opposition goal – put simply, ‘often outplayed’.
Lurky@305 & SSY@322
Can’t blame them for laughing. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sky switch our remaining televised fixtures to Comedy Central.
Fucking awful, embarrassing, shameful and down right unacceptable in any shape or form.
If you no longer want to fight for this team then FUCK OFF to who ever wants you.
The defending was non existent and Giroud was nothing more than a statue waiting to be taken off.
I am disgusted with my team and that’s a horrible feeling I don’t like having. 7 points out of a possible 30 WTF is going on.
Now if these players who owe AW everything wont play for him then get the fuck out of my club !
A pub team would have put up a better fight, I thought like others I would wait to comment but the anger is still boiling.
Spineless CUNTS !
Sorry if any of this offends but its just how I feel.
Trev @331, well my friend, at these greatly horribilis times, any modest assistance one can attain to quickly achieve “Dutch courage” again cannot be totally advocated against, within calculated reason of course. A single should just about do it, within the realms of acceptability, from past experience with such a list of analgesics! 😉 Seriously, I hope that the painkillers are working! One should never ever have to tolerate pain, once the source has been definitively ascertained, and anything available should be tried. I hope that the pain specialist is doing his best to find the best to combination for you. Take it easy.
Strangely, all that now applies to the last five games of our season too! :-/
I’m fairly mellow about today’s result. The real damage to our season already happened and, comparatively speaking, this really wasn’t that bad a scoreline. 6-0 in the manager’s 1000th was a stony rock-bottom.
I’ll happily be taking my seat again next season and am looking forward to the summer.
We have a lot of work to do on all levels of the club. Can’t imagine Kroenke isn’t seeing this mess. Not an NFL owner about who would stand for it, heads will roll somewhere and for the first time the Yank will need to make his mark.
fuck off with comments like Mug to someone youve never met, Suppose its easy behind a keyboard tho hey,
Course it is Chippy.
You mug 😉
As for winning the last five games, mr noclue, that will be enough because Everton won’t beat United or City. I’m glad you’re so optimistic about CL football next year.
And you know what’s even sweeter?
When we finish fourth and win the FA Cup, we won’t be freeing up an extra European place for Spurs, we’ll be doing it for United. And they’ll be playing in the Shit Cup, which will be more humiliating than no getting into Europe at all.
Oh, we won’t be freeing up a league place after all. I thought they change the rules but they haven’t.
Still, fuck it. Fourth, FA Cup. That’ll do as a first step.
As far as the photo of the bench goes, it only means something if you want it to.
I feel Trev’s pain earlier- I think mine is exactly the same. Mature reflection on the result is all. E&y well but the visceral ache when your non- competing aimless team is turned over again by a better prepared and better coached team…….that’s awful and it’s a semi- permanent feeling now. I won’t read anything on the website or in the papers from Wenger , Arteta, BFG or anyone else because they’ve said it all before prior to big games and then played abominably. I shall just go to the matches, support my team and hope against hope we can salvage fourth and the FA Cup from this shambles. Then the inquest really can begin
Trev @ 304: You and others elsewhere have pointed out twin missing ingredients of pace and power in the squad, but you also touched on a third “p” that’s gone absent — a purpose or plan — that’s even more distressing.
Now, if what looks like no purpose or plan is down to the absence of pace/power caused by injuries and/or fatigue and/or players’ talents leveling to their expected norms after an early season of great performance, that’s one thing. That is correctable by adding quality to the squad in several places. But if the absence of purpose or plan is a major contributor to the squad looking slow and powerless, then that is a stinging indictment, and may be the sign that organizational change is in order.
But what’s most important, right now, is that supporters do what they’re supposed to do — support!!! I for one think that the trip to Wembley will energize the squad, and we’ll see the return of the type of football that the Arsenal is known for, and it will carry on that way through season’s end. Whether that’s good enough for CL entry we won’t know until May 10, but it’s up for grabs now.
I think what frightens me more is even more of the same… ie it’s 31 August 2014, AW is still the manager, and there’s been no new signings.
I think i’ve already resigned myself to losing against Wigan. Might well lose to Hull at this rate too.
Ho hum. Have said it all from about 3 years ago now. Although the ride this year up till Xmas was pretty good 😀
Won’t let my head drop. Not until the season is over. The summer will be plenty long enough to let my head drop in the stifling heat. Frustration, anger and plenty of other emotions are rattling around inside there for sure, but I’ll keep my head high and expect to beat Wigan and the Premier League opposition we have left. That’s the only way I can ensure continued disappointment. 😉
Cynic @ 339: “As far as the photo of the bench goes, it only means something if you want it to.” Wise words. Let us not try to look for things outside the football pitch to beat the players. They performed poorly. Period.
They had shown enough desire and commitment for a long stretch of the season, no one was hiding, and even in our bad days we were getting results by discipline and grit. A series of things went wrong, some preventable and some not and we find ourselves in this sorry mess. The team management underestimated some of the key elements in the team’s alchemy, and no one stepped up when needed. It feels awful, but let us not get on the players’ back. Six, and hopefully seven, key games remain.
Trev @ 301: Very insightful observations about Arsene’s fatigue. I don’t think it is a question of abilities or desire, simply a question of physical and mental sharpness which have been faltering. I think the high-wire balancing act of last seven years while juggling so many complex problems and yet consistently presenting a positive face of the club and fronting for everyone — players and boards — have taken much more toll than what we could probably imagine.
Some would point to his high salary etc. but getting well paid doesn’t take care of the exhaustion, the fatigue and the self-doubt. This season he almost turned it around but again to be defeated by his achilles heel of recent years: lack of ruthlessness. Tentativeness in getting replacements in Jan window, tentativeness in changing personnel and formation and strategy when needed in the course of a season or within a match.
If this is his final season, which seems more and more likely, let us try our best to make it memorable by doing the minimum on PL front — CL place — and winning the FA Cup. Bouldy and others should remind the players that there is a very likelihood of Arsene leaving at the end of the season and if they have any self-respect for their manhood they would just give it their all for the rest of the matches in this season.
Let us end this season on a relative high. Let us wave Arsene a fond farewell if he chooses so — there are hints that he realized that there is a generation of tactically sophisticated hungry young managers and it may be time for him to pass the baton — and immortalize him in our memories, let us turn a new chapter and move forward.
I myself like many others all over the world became an Arsenal fan because of Arsene Wenger, IMHO eventually he would be remembered as the most well-rounded and visionary club manager of our times (wait until Liverpool tries to build a stadium) and a brilliant football theorist, and the entire club — players and supporters alike — must do our utmost to ensure that the denouement of his nearly two decades long affair with the club is one of celebration and positivity.
We have a saying back home which translates to ‘tripping and falling in front of people who are already laughing at you’. That’s what I was reminded of with our recent ‘performances’. The abject defeat at the hands of Moronho who had the gall to call Arsene a specialist in failure; vindicating what that twat rooney said about our top of the table position last year, ’let’s see where they are in April, they usually implode’. That’s what makes it harder to take.
That, plus not showing up. It happened last year too, when Theo said on the last match mind you, when the fourth place was going down to the wire, that ‘boss gave us a bollocking at half time’. Now, won’t the players know what they were/are playing for? Does the boss have to give a bollocking like they were school kids or brain damaged? Don’t these guys get paid enormous amounts of money every week? Don’t thousands of supporters chant their names when they take the field? Isn’t that enough to give your heart out? Would you and I do the same if we got paid that much, and people cheered everything we did at work, and bought our jersey (provided we wore jersey to work)?
But it seems we have mastered the art of putting painful defeats behind, because there’s always another one coming round soon.
I feel sorry for Arsene, for it’s not the first time his trust in players is betrayed.
Dr. F.
Well said – as usual.
Now im out on media blackout. Lets do this Wembley thing people!!
And where the heck is my double whiskey?!?
Dr F- some key points well said above @ 345 regarding Arsenes own self doubts and tentativeness and lack of ruthlessness.
Arsene of recent years, reminds me a bit of the great white shark “Greg Norman. A once ferocious and ruthless competitor, a leader of new ideas amongst the peers of his day and a relentless winner, who after some big losses down the back nine in some major golf tournaments, never really recovered mentally and his game eventually fell away due to his own personal lack of confidence in key moments.
Sadly it is also referred to as “choking’ or in putting terms, referred to as “the yips’.
Arsene has had the YIPS for a while now and they are only getting worse, as was evident with the lack of belief in the team today.
Any blame on players for the mess witnessed today is just ridiculous.
Unfortunately, the time is very close for Arsene to have to make a decision in the best interest of the club he loves, FA cup win or not.
Just watched the highlights on MOTD. Quite simply dreadful. No excuses, just not good enough. All three goals were very poor.
Top 4 is now out of our hands and we only have ourselves to blame.
One other point re next week. The FA cup becomes even more important now, if that was possible. I do hope that we do not fuck about with selections and that we pick our strongest side. If we “rest” certain players and the unthinkable happens then I really do not want to even contemplate the potential fallout.
It’s almost the same players that beat Everton with the same team at home not to long ago. What can the big difference be?
Cazorla cannot play wing if we want to defend well. Podolski cannot defend either. Trainers see that and they punish it. Bayern when they beat Barcelona easily had two wingers in Robben and Ribery that worked their asses off, both ran around 12 km and did their defensive duties.
Arteta for all the good he did for us for two seasons can’t be playing alot of games and then be expected to have the speed for a top-match.
Wilshere, Walcott, Cazorla, Giroud have been underperforming most of the season. Walcott was coming into speed before injury so abit unlucky there. Özil can be discussed but it’s his first season so I leave it to him to prove himself even more next year.
Our midfield which we boasted was the best in the premier league at the start of the season can’t handle a packed defence at all. There’s noone willing to make the runs to open up space for another player. Look at Liverpools offensive, they may have Suarez, but even Sturridge is a 20+ goalscorer with injuries this season. Why? Because the man can find space behind defences. Chelseas attacking 3 can defend almost as well as they can attack. Man city have the core of Toure/Fernandinho, both strong and capable of playing both ways.
Our defence has been naive at times against the topsides but I think they’ve been let down by the men infront of them. To many turnovers in dangerous areas which puts the likes of Mertesacker up against Hazard, Sturridge and Suarez with speed, we all know how that ends.
Next season I want to see Wenger go back to his old sides, strong fastpaced players that attack with speed and purpose. Surround Özil with speed and he will do wonders. Him and Ramsey is already a work in progress, as you could see on some of Ramseys passes yesterday which only Özil have the intelligence to run at.
Lovegood @354,
Good post fella and spot-on on many points; especially Cazorla, Podolski and Arteta.
You have to earn the right to play both offensively and defensively and right now the team does neither when asked to “man-up”. Too many mistakes and losses of concentration. Apathy and irresponsibility to perform one’s required tasks is also evident now too. Sad to see.
Wenger’s time is over. Where cleverness once ruled, abject transfers and criminal tactics now mark his reign.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we’ve gotten to a point where my beloved club is suffering under the tutelage of Arsene Wenger.
Changing the manager is the single most important thing the club can do this summer…before then actually buying a striker and defensive midfielder, which Wenger has been unable to do with disastrous consequences.
Inept and past-it. Sad.
Just been called a racist! Heh! No bother. By the way to him that did so, you really don’t know me very well do you? And on that basis I should be a little more careful in flinging accusations like that about based on your somewhat small minded interpretation of comments made on the internet about football matches.
Sad to see this place do down the toilet as well, but it has indubitably done so.
Tara.
#336, “can’t see that Kroenke isn’t seeing this mess…heads will roll somewhere”. You might be waiting awhile. His St.Louis Rams last won a Superbowl in the 1999/00 Season. Jan 2000. The Rams are valued at $775M. There’s no relegation or promotion in the NFL. Ownership is about guaranteed income. You can be mediocre in the NFL & still mske money. Hence the value of the Rams. As long as Kroenke’s long term investment at the Ems continues, the less ambition you’ll see in monies spent on the field. Kroenke just purchased major real estate in downtown LA. Why? To move his “franchise” the St Louis Rams to LA in 2015 when his deal w/St. Louis expires. The Los Angeles Rams. Voila. LA has no current NFL tram. That’s not how you run a successful Soccer club. Our net investment on players is lower than anybody’s. Kroenke, the Board & Manager all have to be held accountable. Looking at Wenger’s interview today I felt for him. He looks done. Who the fuck at Arsenal apart from Wenger knows anything about Football? A sorry state of affairs I’m afraid. COYR’S
Gutted with the lack of fight in this team. We have a good first XI. Not an excellent one by any means. But that first team has performed well within their means. Then they were run into the ground.
We have no business playing in the CL. Its pointless with the lack of a squad. We barely have a squad for the PL never mind the CL.
With little squad rotation it has come to this. We need some one new to come in. make us tough to beat and get some flair back into the team.
I feel sad that our manager is lampooned like this. He deserves to go on a high. But its best we say good bye to him this season. We need to move forward once more.
OK.
Been too pissed off since yesterday to backdrink and still am. I am going to try a slightly new approach to dealing with disappointment this time, I’ll just scribble down my thoughts and then stay away from any Arsenal-related stuff for the rest of the day or so and see if that helps.
Anyway.
I very rarely go along with the “they showed no fight” cliché, but yesterday I did. Some players really should be ashamed of themselves, I don’t know if it was because they thought they could get away with just coasting and that someone else would step up or if they just felt sorry for themselves or whatever but the fact that Aaron Ramsey, after almost four months out, can come on and have a bigger impact on the game in 20 minutes than the rest of the team combined had up to that point is… well, beyond words. Everton didn’t play particularly well technically, they just wanted it more (Poldi could easily have blocked Lukaku’s path towards the middle for the second goal and what Arteta was doing just ambling about for the third goal I will never understand) and that is just not acceptable. We had the chance yesterday to more or less secure at least fourth place but didn’t even put up a fight. That just won’t do. Losing to a team that is better on the day, fine, but like this… no.
The fact that the ref had a proper stinker but was still better than most of our team speaks volumes too.
Arsene and the players have a big job on their hands now to lift themselves up for the Wigan game. We have to win that one and we may have to win at least four of our remaining five to finish fourth. That’s simply not acceptable from the position we were in just a few weeks ago.
Ah, fuck it. The more I think about the game the more pissed off I get so maybe I’m better off just not thinking about it and start giving this “work” thing some attention so I don’t have to stay here all evening.
354 – spot on. Said the same a few days ago. Told I personally attacke the manager.
358 – rams paid absolute top $$$ to get jeff fisher a couple of years ago. With 1 cup on offer for 30 teams it isn’t winning it so much as a coach must show his teams compete for him that usually gets someone fired. You can go 3-13 and show heart with a shit squad and keep your job. Jacksonville lay year. Anyway, my take would be Kroeber won’t take kindly to this collapse, not just the points dropped, but the way we did it. Gazidis could go though and wenger stays. I’d be happy with that to.
Another dire performance with an early kick off “up North”.
Maybe the supplements all the players are taking are reacting with the black pudding in the team breakfast and pruducing a mind and body numbing tranquilizer ?. Over to the medical boys.
Will be in Lisbon for Wigan, can anyone recommend a decent venue?
Vinny @ 358 – “That’s not how you run a successful “soccer” club.
Correct. These days it isn’t.
You Spend an outrageous amount of money. You lose a fortune each year without remorse or any need for fiscal prudence. You win. You don’t worry about the source of the money. And loyalty isn’t an issue. If the manager wins something in one season, but doesn’t the next you fire him. If the players you’ve overpaid for don’t perform, don’t worry, just pay them 90k a week anyway or loan them to one of your prime competitors opponents.
It’s the new world. It’s Russian wealth. It’s ill gotten. It’s Middle East hydrocarbon returns which could be better spent on humanitarian/social projects. It’s why Chelsea, Citeh and now PSG can come from nowhere to pre-eminence.
AND, of-course, it’s all the fault of the Arsenal manager.
The future of the BPL is light blue. And that Arsene’s fault too because he sold too many players to Manchester. And it’s “definitely not good enough”
🙂
Btm- so all the footballing world are wrong but arsenal are the only ones doing it right by being perennial bridesmaids.
Or should i say 4th bridesmaid.
Morning all. Heading home this morning. Write up will be this afternoon. Some may not like it 🙁
Heh Holic. Great trailer…. 🙂
You should say whatever you wish A. Not sure what weddings have got to do with anything, but walk on up that aisle and registrar your comments to your hearts content while you tie your knot on, rosie. 🙂
Fortunately or otherwise, not everyone in the footballing world is able/wants to fund success in the way that the clubs that I mentioned do But for those that are not, those that can afford to buy success without financial remorse will always win over the long term. The future of the BPL is light blue for as long as Sheik Mansour remains interested.
You want to win the the Premier League from the depths of or nowhere? Easy. Lose 700 million pounds in one season and you can buy it a la Mancini.
“But won’t the club that I love go bust if they do that?” I hear you ask. Well, that depends……, but I won’t spell it out for you.
When City win the league again this season, ask yourself “How the heck did that happen?” Probably a micro-second of deep analysis will get you to the answer.
Then ask yourself, IF Pellegrini had replaced Arsene Wenger at the start of the season and had also lost Ramsey, Walcott, Ozil, Wilshere, Koscielny at the point in late December when Arsenal were top of the league, rolling toward an FA Cup win and on their way into a fantastic successive 16th (bridesmaid) entry into the final 16 of the Champions League, if Arsenal would have gone on to win the League?
Hertfordshire’s emerald green fairways are calling. Have a good one.
Good morning, Holic.
Recommend that you cut and paste Lars @ 357 and the go out for a beer. No club can lose their best five, and carry so many “off form” players and still get a result (Personally, I blame the manager 🙂 )
Wasn’t very pleasant being at Goodison yesterday. Absolute shocker of a drive home too. Our fans reverted to the concept of booing Giroud loudly from about five minutes in to bolster his confidence and encourage him to play better. Inexplicably, that didn’t work.
Was worth all of that to see ONE of the five come back and begin to take on Everton on his own. Oh what might have been.
As Bath says, Great Preview! We’ll make a marketer of you yet.
Good Luck reviewing that Guv, I feel it may have a touch of the Doors This is the End about it 🙂
Rambo looked sharp.
The rest looked stale.
The boss looked defeated.
We need more than just a striker.
Öskar
But given the run-in I reckon we’re still favourites for 4th.
Öskar
@366
“The killer awoke before dawn. He put his boots on”.
Is he available for Saturday, though?
Dr F @345 – thanks, and good stuff yourself.
Your third paragraph about the need for motivation of the players leads nicely into “dennis10” @346 –
don’t the players just desperately ‘want’ it for themselves – why do they ever need a half time bollocking to get them going ?
Maybe it is because injuries have prevented sufficient rotation and they are all completely knackered, but they are young men with the most fantastic facilities in which to prepare and recuperate.
Maybe the issue of physical stature comes into play and they are more tired because they are working harder just to fight against bigger players.
I just don’t seem to hear any other club making such a big deal of fatigue and red zones and whatever.
Good stuff from Lars, too.
Think I’ll take a leaf out of your book, mate, and just buzz off for a while.
Too disappointing.
Btm@364- I wonder if Pellegrini would have played the 5 saviours of the season into the ground so much that they were left with nothing but overuse injuries (again)
Who needs a squad.
Question: why is the semi final kicking off at 5.07?
@ 371
I can’t speak for the rest, but my understanding is that there is absolutely no clear evidence that Walcott’s was an “overuse” injury.
He started less than a dozen games this season.
There’s no doubt yesterday was terrible, but as Lars pointed out pre match, very few teams have gone to Goodison this year and come away with points.
We have 5 games left and all are winnable matches.
For some the Cup will present an opportunity to end our barren run (and I genuinely think we’ll win the cup), but be under no doubt, it is far more important that we qualify for the CL.
As to the question marks over Wenger, the team etc, they should wait until the season is over.
We need to accentuate the positive and get behind the team.
Agree, as always, with the inimitable BTM who provides an intelligent perspective on the greater landscape.
No surprise there’s no leadership on the pitch when Verm keeps getting the armband back when he comes in from the cold, what’s that all about . Mert should have been captain all season. Apparently capataincy is irrelevant since Gallas imploded. Funny, that, I thought guys like Adams, Viera, Campbell were quite useful in that way.. And dont talk to me about Flamini’s leadership, that freebie couldnt even get in the AC Milan (mid-table) first XI. I read here a lot about the world turning blue or light blue or whatever…eh Liverpool , Hello ? Finally, I think what all of us should want is 4th and an exit from the FA cup next weekend, that’s the recipe for change , with CL football still holding out hope for big names actually wanting to join. Other combinations scare the crap out of me and lead to a compalcent summer, while Man U come back with a bang and Everton add firepower too no doubt.. Spurs with a new man in charge..
What a world we live in.
Nine years of “You’ve not won trophies”.
Get close to a trophy: “We need to hope we don’t win this”.
Come on sc – cowboy up and get behind them. What will be will be this summer; for what it’s worth, it’s been my strong suspicion since Xmas that Le Boss isn’t renewing no matter how the season ends.
COYG
Arsenal Bloody Arsenal ! 🙂
n7 – does the reason really matter. He was out for ages and we are supposed to be happy about him returning by pre- season.
Terrific stuff all round arsenal
@ Aussie
It wasn’t me who raised the reason for the injury.
Yes N7 I would prefer 4th and no Cup to 5th and that tea-cup. That’s not just about Wenger by the way. Monkey off back is no good if we end up with no chance to strengthen properly. Portsmouth won the FA Cup, remember ? Stars won’t sign. Transfer fees are inflated and Kroenke won’t pay up without CL, simple as. We’ll be left buying players for 5-10 mill. I don’t need to be told to cowboy up after well over 40 years following the team passionately. That’s my view and I’m entitled to it just as the guys who come on and say we need to finish outside the Top 4 to shake the club up. I respect the view, know where it’s coming from, but worry that scenario leaves the club in big trouble. I also think it’s a more interesting view than ” Get behind the team lad”. If the tide is turning, let’s mobilize everybody and let the club know…unambiguously. They read blogs too ! And this is a very good, influential blog I daresay…
Good stuff @364, BtM.
@ sc
Ah, I may have read you wrong – I thought you were saying you hoped we wouldn’t win the cup, regardless of 4th. Top four over a cup for me too.
Everyone is entitled to hold a view. That goes for people saying they hope we finish outside the top four and also people responding to that view.
“Get behind the team lad” may not be interesting, but it’s honest.
@sc
Actually, re-reading it, I suspect I had it right the first time:
“Finally, I think what all of us should want is 4th and an exit from the FA cup next weekend, that’s the recipe for change”.
Me either N7.
Just responding to those suggesting if not for the 5 unlucky arsenal players (again) getting unlucky injuries (again) things would have been so different this year, magically somehow different than the past 8 or 9 Years of just plain old bad luck for arsene and arsenal.
Poor old arsene must be the most unluckiest CEO on the planet.
It’s always someone else’s fault.
Indeed N7. There are 4 possible outcomes involving the 2 competitions and yes, that’s the best outcome I think for the long-term future of AFC. 5th doesn’t bear thinking about the way the top 5 or 6 is shaping up for 2014/15 and who can be sure anything AT ALL will change if we win the FA Cup, come 4th and exceed last season’s points total ? Kroenke will just purr with contentment and Wenger may just stay on, I don’t know.
Trev @370- exactly.
“You don’t hear all the other clubs big or small perennially whinging about how hard done by they are with injuries” and a woe is us attitude.
FFS – see it for what it is. Admit that those running the club and the team have done a piss poor job and just get on with the job of changing something, anything must be better than that being served up.
Maybe start at the top would be a good idea.
@sc
I disagree with you and I don’t think you should ever hope for your own team to lose, much less lose a semi final.
That said, I suspect you are not alone in your view. Feels like the football equivalent of being told you don’t really love your wife if you don’t care enough to beat her occasionally.
I mean no disrespect to your 40 years of support – sincere kudos on that score – but we see things in very different ways.
Takes all sorts, I suppose.
“The football equivalent of being told you don’t really love your wife if you don’t care enough to beat her occasionally.”
N7
That made me giggle, although I’m not sure wishing a loss on your football team can be compared to domestic abuse.
@ Porco
Heh. I do like to inflate a good simile.
haha N7. I like the analogy, no wonder my missus gives me the runaround ! Fair play to you, I just wanted to get that strange feeling I had off my chest. I think there is a subtle difference between talking about best possible outcomes and “wanting your team to lose”. Even considering such impure, unclean thoughts is a first for me and perhaps a sign, as you say, of many people coming to these sad consclusions and maybe literally only in the last few weeks. The January window was inexcusable, it’s the last straw. Now if we’d actually secured Kalou….!
Heh @ sc. There’s always the summer!
Farcical to blame oil wealth and the rest for our inability to better the two Liverpool clubs in line with our financial superiority over them.
Days of extreme cost cutting to pay for the new place are gone, but it isn’t showing on the pitch.
I hope arsene gets another go, but if it is to turn out any differently he will need to move forward in terms of player recruitment. We do have the funds, he needs to do something with them.
Lol SC. You pushover! 😀
On the injury front, arsene doesn’t help himself by refusing to adapt. Easy from the armchair, but without Walcott playing giroud alone has gone nowhere. Why not get the ace finisher – dodgy defending – Prince Poldi up top with him for support rather than out on te wing where his limitations are magnified and his talents wasted?
Same a few years ago with the full backs out. AW still asked shoutout and TV to attack, rather than adjust the system to let them do what thy do best and defend.
A lot of people saying the players let the manager down, but his job is to motivate them and send them out in a system to get a result. Theo’s comments on the telly were telling, it’s always well score more than you. If you are missing 4 creative players you should adjust. We didn’t. We went out open and got cut up. And we kept doing it.
I agree with El Puno up to a point. If, or rather when, Liverpool finish above us, who can use the argument about not being able to mix it with the Oilers any more? It will look risible.
And if Arsene stays, does anyone hold out hope it will be different this summer? That we’ll identify the players we need and make sure we get them? Do people think we won’t see another deadline day dash to buy more bargains having failed to fill the holes in the squad that everyone can see?
Hi All
So the world cup has started already at Arsenal, 50-50 challenge pull out may not be at the world cup and loose sponsership money. Giroud proved this yesterday and the answer is drop him and anyone else who isnt looking at the next game and not 3 months time.
Very simple put Sanogoo in for the remaining games and let Giroud sit on the bench were his chance of getting picked for his national side starts to slide away. Aw blind faith in some of his players is coming to haunt him. He needs to drop the non performing players and let some of the younger more hungry players have ago and lets be frank could they do any worse ?
It pains me to see the performances some players have been putting in, they are disresepcting the club, fans and manager. That is a disgrace.
7 points out of a possible 30 tells you all you need to know about our current form. There is throwing in the towel and there is dont take the fucking piss lads.
Where is that rope ?
Shoutout = Djourou above FFS
If we fold like a pack of cards with 5 missing then are we saying that the squad isn’t strong enough???? We have a net spend of 11 million on the last 8 seasons but the squad is not strong enough???
All of the “replacements” that played yesterday are experienced internationals. There should be no excuses for that or other similar capitulations.
The fact is, as I have said for some considerable time now, the squad we have is not good enough. That doesn’t mean to say we have to compete with the petro dollar boys. It doesn’t mean to say that we spend money we don’t have. But there have been obvious deficiencies in the squad for years that have not been addressed.
I have little or no faith in Stan, Ivan and his merry men when it comes to transfer dealings. They have produced very little in the way of addressing the issues. They may be fantastic commercially but I am not convinced they get what it’s like to deal with a club like ours. This is a club with history and heritage. A club with standards and values. We are not some franchise that is about to become the North London 49ers. It’s a hell of a lot more than that; and I’m not sure they get it.
The ironic thing is that I still believe that we will finish 4th and I still believe we will win the cup. But we need to find someone who can sort out the playing staff at the highest level or we will never get there.
Are we??????? You know the question. You tell me if you think we are because I think we are way short.
Here here Steve.
Last thought this lunch break. I still think arsene is a superb coach as our early season showed, at times. I would be happy I he stayed on with a new deal. But I’d love to see someone come in to close a transfer. Gazidis hasn’t done it.
Arsene was asked to do too much for too long and it was taken for granted because he generally did it superbly. Just as AW should put the players in a position to succeed, te club should do. It for him. Given a comparable squad he will outperform the competition. Why this collapse is showing is that transfer dealings have not done that either in quality or quantity.
UTA. Over.
Re: the 5 out (or is it 6?), I don’t think it can possibly be a total excuse for the abject performances we’ve seen in the last month.
However, nor can it be completely waved away.
Yes – the players we do have fit should be giving far, far more than they have been doing and we shouldn’t be collapsing as we have.
No – it’s not the case that all the injuries are the club’s fault, or that any team would just continue to sail on regardless with 5 or 6 first team players out.
Our levels were bound to drop, and anyone who says they didn’t have any concerns when Jack/Ozil/Kos/Gibbs went down one by one as we headed into a period of incredibly tough fixtures is flat out lying.
There’s a sensible middle ground in there somewhere, people.
I also think that, leaving all other issues to one side, as long as we maintain this trend of time and again heading into the critical part of the season with half the first team unavailable we will face a massive struggle to win the title.
I have no idea how we remedy the problem, which I suppose brings us back to Trev’s excellent OP.
398 – sorry for the overlap, was typing as that was posted. Here here etc 🙂
n7 – without wishing to simplify any of our issues. What about starting by buying some of the players who have chopped us to pieces this season when they were available.
Arsenes blind faith in this depleted squad has him believe that abou diaby is going to be a monster someday but the truth is he never will.
Arsene still believes that going in with giroud was acceptable, that sanogo would be fine, that Ryo was going to kill it, that ozil could send superb opposition splitting balls into giroud in the same way he did for ronaldo and benzema and co.
That’s where he should have been starting and cut some of the chaff that he bought.
No one else bought this team except arsene.
@ Aussie
We are never going to have a squad of 22 world class players.
That means that there will always be some drop off when half the first team gets injured.
Look at Liverpool – they’re gunning for the title, largely because since his return from suspension Suarez has played virtually every game. Likewise Henderson. Likewise Gerrard – who has played a huge amount of football, given his age.
Does anyone believe, hand on heart, that if we’d signed Suarez in August he’d have gone a whole season uninjured for us? Does anyone ever go a whole season uninjured for us? We’d probably have broken him by Christmas.
Yes, there are other issues. Maybe some of them are even as important as this one. But for my money, until we work out what the problem is with keeping players fit we will not win the title, even if we get things right elsewhere.
Fair point N7.
Understand and agree.
I guess when you look at a team like Everton who don’t look like much on paper and what I see as a bunch of mid table players (no disrespect), makes me wonder how our scouts miss kids like delafeo and co etc etc.
They seem tough hardened and young and fight like here is no tomorrow.
N7. Perhaps if we had signed a striker we would not have flogged OG to death????
The squad lacks depth and quality. We have had the resources to deal with the problem and we simply have not done it. It’s that simple really.
I think one of the things we see with Everton is the benefit of the same players being able to get a proper run of games.
One of the big costs of injury isn’t just the time out, but the time it takes them to find their rhythm once they’re back. Everton, to my knowledge, have had relatively few injuries this season (bar Jagielka and I think Baines for a while), which means that the midfield have all played together week in, week out, that they are in a groove. Part of it is down to Martinez (who is an excellent manager), but give him our injury list and I think he’d be doing well to be keeping his team in the top half of the table.
Compare and contrast Everton with us at the weekend – Cazorla is shunted out on the right wing, Arteta and Flamini are basically the last of our available CMs and have shown very limited ability to play together, Monreal comes straight back into the side for a massive crunch game after a period out because we simply can’t rest him, etc etc.
Part of the solution to the above might be better rotation early in the season, but we barely even had that option this year as the injuries started on day one (Ox out for months, Arteta unavailable, no Theo, no Cazorla) and have barely let up since. We’ve been firefighting since August, with the worst blaze of all occurring right on top of our crunch period.
I would hope that the club will move heaven and earth this summer to work out what the problem is. It’s gone on for far too long now for there not to be some root cause which we can address.
Delofeu would have been pretty well known to our scouts as one of Barca’s top prospects, but I suspect Barca weren’t interested in loaning him to us. I’d guess the bigger questions would be how we missed good, solid performers like Coleman and Mirallas, either of whom would improve our squad right now.
All incredibly frustrating.
@ Aussie 405
Good point re Everton’s players. Sometimes I look at the Arsenal signings of the past few years and think I could find better ones on YouTube.
The frustrating part of these roundabout type discussions is we always come back to;
If city or if everton or utd or chelski or wigan had our injuries they would be shite as well, which i guess leads to the same old boring point, no one does seem to have our injury crisis…..but us
It is so grustratingly ridiculous it is simply killing this club
@406
True, Steve – but that’s only one area.
We’ve been round the houses on the reasons why no striker came in. Clearly, we got sidetracked in the summer and we couldn’t find anyone in January. I don’t think there was ever a single person in the bar who didn’t want us to bring a striker in, in either window.
For me, the lesson has to be that we shouldn’t spend the whole summer chasing “world class” and end up empty handed. I can understand why we moved from Higuain to Suarez (I think the latter’s ridiculous form this season vindicates that decision). I can understand what went wrong with Suarez (bad intel – fair enough, it happens).
What I can’t understand is that lack of a cost-effective plan B. I look at Loic Remy and I wonder if it would have killed us to take him on loan and pay his wages for a season, just in case. Wouldn’t have stopped us from shopping around for another forward.
January, less so – I didn’t see any outstanding candidates to come in, or who moved elsewhere. There were shouts for Klose, but I don’t think Klose would have made too much of a difference to what’s happened subsequently – he’s 36 in June.
I really hope the club learns the lesson of 2013/14, which is: get your business done in the summer.
@ 409
I agree.
At some point we have to stop wondering what would happen if other clubs had our bad luck and work out how to address our bad luck. Because after half a decade of the same issue, there just has to be more than luck involved.
N7, I’d add that those lessons go back further than just one season.
@ Porco
This is true.
But what I don’t want to hear any more of are the following (in conjunction):
(i) We have kept a bit of powder dry for January (August).
(ii) There is no value/player availability in the January market (January).
Porco – it does really make you shake your head and wonder….
What about some of swansea, newcastle and villas youth or even their average squad players, have to be better than that fullback that arsene bought a few seasons ago….
Cant even recall his name as it sends fear up my spine, oh thats right. The only player who was worse than santos but not santos, sebasstien squillaci….
Fuck me how could you scout that tosser. Worst player i have ever seen pull on the red shirt.
@ N7 – Me neither. I’m footballistically ignorant but to try out for Higuain then Suarez, and end up with Sanogo – and then for someone to suggest there isn’t anyone else worth going in for, I just don’t buy it.
@ Aussie – LOL, I give you Agent Sylvestre and Park. Good lord.
N7- if my memory serves me correctly, we have tonight agreed on 2 posts with different points of view. A true breakthrough of epic proportions.
Only on this site would that be possible.
Heh @ Aussie.
Surely a sign of the end times.
N7,
Injuries and new signings apart, what is singularly most disconcerting is our usual capitulation at the business end of the season especially if there’s pressure to win something. That has nothing to do with injuries or a lack of new players because its happened over a number of years now. It comes down to the collective psyche of the team unit and the mental fragility of the squad to determine results. You don’t need “confidence” to put a shift in. Last week, for example, a team that was low in confidence worked hard against City and we got a point for our troubles. Yesterday we reverted back to that insipid, timid, naive, almost carefree performance and got stuffed.
El Puno@394: To your Theo comment, this is the first season since 2000-01 that we have been conceding more goals on average in away games than we have been scoring, 1.76 vs 1.59. The 2000-01 numbers were 1.32 vs 0.95.
Porco – they were certainly top shelf, but no arsenal player as ever made me sigh with greater certainty of fear as when i saw Sebastian squillaci warming up on the sideline about to come on.
I nearly felt sorry for him in the end, it was like they had bought a player from sunday league and made an identity mistake for a pro footballer or a passport mistake.
He never disappointed either, he was always only a few minutes away from an unmitigated disaster of unequalled fullback/goalkeeper blunder or misunderstanding
Aussie@414 Squillacci was actually a lot better than better than Stepanovs, Linegan, Carter, Selley, and Bentley. And a good few others I have seen in the shirt.
@ Joe
I don’t entirely buy that.
We finished last season in title winning form (albeit grinding out tight wins), and there’s been extreme pressure on us in the tail end of each of the last two seasons and we’ve managed to come through it.
There was more pressure on us, to give but one example, on the final day of last season than there was yesterday.
Likewise, as you point out, we did fine against City in a high pressure game only a week ago. I have absolutely no idea what’s going on with the squad, but it’s too easy to assume that we lose because we have the wrong mentality.
Here’s another way of looking at it: our away form has collapsed since Xmas. Spurs aside, you have to go back to mid January to find the last time we actually won an away game.
Meanwhile, we haven’t lose a domestic home game (including the likes of Liverpool, Everton and City, all of whom we apparently suffer a mental block against) since Chelsea in the Carling Cup.
How can the team have a good mentality at home and a bad mentality away? It’s not as if the away games were the only pressure games, either.
I’m not saying that mentality doesn’t play a part, I’m just saying I don’t really understand how it’s as variable as it seems to be, and I certainly don’t think it’s anywhere near as big a factor as the injuries.
In fact, if I were to hazard another guess as to the difference between home and away, it’s that teams tend to press us more aggressively away from home, and our midfield – particularly with the injuries – struggles to handle being pressed hard.
It seems to have become the de facto tactic of choice against us since Anfield, and I suspect we’ll see more of the same on Saturday.
A bit of Wikipedia on linegan bath…
Finished his career with st albans city (non league) and He now owns his own plumbing business.(no disrespect to any plumbers)
Shit bath, where do i sign up to be a scout…
One more for you bath,
Igor stepanovs was a latvian hero playing 100 games for his country and was the latvian footballer of the year in 2005.
Shit, would love to know what the rest of that latvian side was like in 2005
As porco said earlier….. Good lord !
You all forgot Pascal Cygan. Seeing his name on the team sheet was like, “So we’re starting at 1-0 down then”.
Two words: Eddie McGoldrick….no wonder we missed out the MF when he, Bentley and Carter bestrode the turf.
Gus Caesar anyone?
N7,
I’m not picking you up on anything per se.
I’m just making my own observations.
In relation to last year, we had a very poor season and found ourselves adrift from competing for the league and while we finished strongly, all we could reasonably expect to get was a top 4 finish, which we did, by the skin of our teeth, when our defence largely carried us over the line.
This season, I felt we built on the defensive side of things and were genuine competitors towards winning the league (I find it somewhat difficult to comprehend how a squad like Liverpool are actually winning the league even if I fancy them to beat City at the weekend). While sustaining 5/6 injuries would knock the wheels off many a teams campaign, it was more the manner and nature of how we lost that brought back the “soft underbelly” of yesteryear that I honestly thought we’d discarded.
Yesterday we played Podolski and Cazorla on the wings against an Everton side whose full backs needed to be put under pressure to prevent them from bombing down the flanks. And while the view from the TV won’t tell the entire story, I just couldn’t understand how poor both of those players were.
My point is this year, we were in an entirely different space to last season and we led the league for a long time, but when it came to the business end, we’ve completely imploded. And while Injuries go some way towards explaining that, there is without a doubt imo, a very serious problem with the mental psyche of Wenger’s teams over the past number of years, especially when the pressure comes on to actually go and win something.
We’re playing Wigan at the weekend. We should be confident about seeing that game out. Are we confident? I just don’t know what team is going to show up!
Blimey ! People have been busy in the bar this morning.
Busier, I would venture, than a one armed taxi driver with the crabs. 😉
N7 – Aussie,
Anterior cruciate ligament ruptures are generally not overuse injuries. If the foot jams in the ground and body weight drives the thigh forwards over the head of the tibia (shin), or particularly forwards and inwards, a torn anterior cruciate is likely to result.
They are a bit like a torn meniscus (knee cartilage) in that they can happen to anyone at any time. It’s more a question of loading and angles than amount of use.
No offence meant with the bits in brackets – just that some of these terms mean as much to some people as car mechanics does to me.
Joe, after this weekend I don’t know anyone at all who is the least bit confident. This team needs to remember its second half v $hitteh, review the mistakes of yesterday, watch Wign v $hitteh x 2 and not get in the least bit overconfident and go out and do their jobs. Will they? Who knows? I don’t even think Arsene can answer that. He looked thoroughly incredulous and perplexed in the post match interview.
N7,
You might well be right about the extra pressing away from home. The trouble is that when are teeny weeny midfielders get pressed they tend to fall over a lot. Not necessarily fouled, they just come off second best in physical challenges.
Consequently, they lose the ball a lot in front of our back four. The rest is, sadly, obvious.
I couldn’t agree with you more Bath.
And that’s what most frustrating and what Wenger referred to when he said about going “back to basics”. You begin to wonder how professional footballers earning £000’s / week need to be told about the basics at the business end of the season?
He did, bath. Arsene looked properly hurt in that interview.
You had to feel sorry for him on the one hand. On the other, you wonder why he was so totally passive as the disaster unfolded in front of him.
I’ll apologise to some now. It ain’t pretty. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Joe @418,
I think one would have to say that injuries do play a part, but I agree with you about the confidence/putting a shift in bit.
Surely, one way of restoring confidence is to start ‘making’ things happen. It tends to happen that the harder you work the luckier you get, too.
However poor your form, you will soon have the crowd onside if they can see you busting a gut.
The day of reckoning is this saturday or Wembley may just burn to ashes. The frustration will reach a boiling point and i am certain there will be something bad that may happen if and thats a big if, we do not win.
Arsenal do not seem to know what to do when teams come up with a basic tactic- pressurize them in the middle and then have no escape route. For all the possession we may have, the end result more often than not is losing the same possession or playing along without hurting the opposition.
This is going on and on and the worry is this is not new, nor is it something unknown. We do not do plan B because there is no plan B. We seem to think we have better players and if they play well or allowed to play well, we should win, errrrrrrrrrrrr sorry we have good players and some average ones who if allowed time and space will play well and most times win but no one out there will allow that time.
There is something fundamentally wrong, we cannot have this every season, who to be blamed i dont know for its a collective failure.
if you dont know what ails you then you can wail over it, if you do know and do not do anything towards it then its your bloody problem and not an excuse.
Players, manager board everyone needs to give an explanation, the value of playing for Arsenal is pristine, do not take it for granted, millions of lives depend on the things you guys do, so do not fuck our lives up, we are so deeply imbibed into the club that we cannot give up but the pain is so deep now that numbness is all one can feel.