Graeme Souness has claimed that Arsenal fans will have been frustrated watching the 5-2 victory over Everton.
The Gunners dominated the Blues from start to finish in the Premier League encounter, but that didn’t stop them from trailing for almost half an hour in the first half.
Wayne Rooney opened the scoring with a sublime finish inside 12 minutes, and Jordan Pickford kept them in the lead with a number of saves, but he couldn’t deny Arsenal eventually.
Nacho Monreal equalised for us just before half-time, and the onslaught continued after the break, and we eventually walked away with a comfortable 5-2 victory, and Souness claims that it would have been a tough watch for Gunners fans.
“If you’re an Arsenal supporter, how frustrating is it watching that?” he said.
“In seven days you’ve seen the two sides of Arsenal.
“In terms of playing football, creating chances, it doesn’t get any better than this. It doesn’t get any better than this if you’re Arsenal.
“If you analyse the first half it was all Arsenal.
“They get people forward quickly, accurate passing, slick passing.
“Some of the goals are avoidable if you put your Everton head on. But some of the quality of these goals…”
Our displays against Watford and Red Star Belgrade this week certainly could have been better, and you can understand the former Blackburn manager’s thoughts.
We lost the battle with Watford last weekend, which led to a number of fans and pundits to claim we played without fight and ‘cojones’, and sometimes only the reaction afterwards is the only way to truly see if a team has what it takes to compete, and I feel we done that today.
Did we show our ‘cojones’ today? Did the win this week lead to frustrating thoughts?
Pat J
We’ve been frustrated for years. Frustrated for over a decade.
Nothing new really lol
In terms of the two matches. Some things need to consider
1. Alexis, Ramsey, Ozil didn’t start at Watford. We had Welbeck, Eleny, Iwobi. Our lineup against Everton was stronger
2. Everton is bad. Really, really bad. They have been battered worse
3. I’m not to concerned about the the Everton goals. Rooney’s was a belter and the second one was comical defending but rare and we had won the match so I let them off the hook, especially Cech who is an excellent GK.
4. WE Won our first away match and won big. Again first time this season
5. The midfield and attack in Everton match line up is probably our best starting lineup with exception of maybe Xhaka. Maybe try Wilshere or Coquelin with Ramsey. Xhaka has looked very average recently
6. Ozil looks better with Lacazette and Alexis and Ramsey. If we had Cazorla, Ozil would look world class. We could really use, actually we need a WC central midfielder or two if we want to conquer the Premier League let alone Champions League if we get there
7. Real test will be when we play Liverpool, United, City and Spurs. They will give our defenders a much tougher time than Everton
We definitely need a WC central midfielder at the very least . On top of that we need to consider the status of contract extensions for Ozil and Sanchez. Am hoping that both will sign the extension but I highly doubt so. And of course get rid of Ospina, get Pickford!
Been really busy picking the ball out the net, innit?
You think Picford will leave Everton’s starting line up to come and sit on Arsenal’s bench?
But Pickford was trash yesterday! Yes he saved them but he kept spilling every shot we made!
My girlfriend supports Man Utd, and she couldn’t stop laughing during the first half, after Rooney scored to put us behind…
But Arsenal had started well, and although we gave the ball away a lot immediately after Rooney’s goal (Shock maybe), we always looked a threat going forward. For the first time in ages I was confident that we’d score and come-back to win the game.
Not only did we come back, but we did it with some gorgeous football. Ozil, Sanchez, and Lacazette made it look absolutely beautiful, and it was me that was laughing through the second half. I haven’t enjoyed an Arsenal game as much as that in a long time. Fantastic.
BUT… Everton’s second goal – WTF happened there? That’s evidence of the usual “Switching-off” problem we have just hiding beneath the surface. Despite the excellent game yesterday, Arsenal’s problems are still just lurking in the background, and they need to work very hard to avoid the usual mid-season slump that fans fear is just around-the-corner at this time of year.
The article asks: Did we show our cojones today. The simple answer is , yes. BUT had the article, more sensibly, asked instead, Do we show our cojones regularly, like a top title challenging club SHOULD, then we ALL KNOW the answer is a resounding NO. And that “NO” stops us challenging at top level, which is every Gooner’s tragedy.
Only mertesacker, our so called captain didn’t show his cojones, he should have closed Rooney down before he got the shot away. We have had pussy or average captains for a while now (arteta, mertesacker, vermaelin) . And cech’s positioning was bad for the goal, watch the highlights again before u comment
Arsene wenger knows what to do but just love to have the whole world frustrated talking about him.. For heaven’s sake ozil needs a carzola in that midfield.. We stopped challenging for the title last season as soon as carzola got injured and wenger being wenger didn’t get a replacement.. Sanchez was the only one trying to hold play in the middle.. We know ozil is more like an 8..most of our play game from the wing.. Which is good but the Arsenal we need to play from the middle especially when playing the big teams
We have jack Wilshere, but wenger doesn’t trust him for the defensive aspect, just play Wilshere instead of xhaka. Let Wilshere learn to be all-rounder beside Ramsey in easy games so he won’t feel out of his depths against stronger teams
Believe me, Wilshere dictating play, holding and creating from the middle with his passes looking for the runs of sanchez, lacazette and Ramsey, and his passes to ozil or whoever is going to be beautiful to watch. And you can’t get the ball off him……..barca and a lot of teams failed at that