It was touch and go for 94 minutes before Danny Welbeck finally popped up with the winner for Arsenal against Leicester, but our acting captain Per Mertesacker just kept telling the team to keep believing and the winner will come.
You can’t say that the Gunners stopped trying to score and would have been happy with a point, and the Big German revealed what he told his team. “I said to the lads to keep believing, keep going and we need to put pressure on them, but that is a breathtaking finish from Danny Welbeck. You see every player can make a difference in this squad and we are happy to have him back. You could see his impact.”
And as for Vardy’s penalty, BFG refused to complain too much and said the secret is just to get on with the game:”We have to take it. They were maybe a bit lucky with the penalty but if there is contact then it is a penalty. On the second occasion when they got a player sent off, we might have been a bit lucky. That is the game. We tried to stick to our game and not be influenced by the referee’s decision. That is what we tried to do the whole game and I think it makes a difference in the end. If you think too much about situations then you will lose yourself and we kept going and that is why we won today.
“We played well, especially in the first half defensively. How everyone dropped back and recovered well when we lost the ball was outstanding. We created a lot of chances and we were a bit unlucky with our finishing, we could have got the winner earlier but we will take it. The energy creates such a finish and you could see the fans were absolutely delighted.”
Wenger had the luxury of bringing on both Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck to improve our striking options, and for once the fans can not complain about his decisions as both of them went on to score our needed two goals. Per said that the team does not get influenced by the criticism of Wenger or his decisions. “We haven’t spoken about that. We are not looking too much at the rumours and the press so we tried to concentrate and we are in a good situation. That is why we concentrate on ourselves and not about rumours. You said about criticism about the manager, so we don’t look at that. Every player counts and every player contributes and you could see that today.”
Mertesacker also agreed that it was important to get over our bad run after the New Year, and now they just need to concentrate on dealing with each game as it comes. “There was a drought in January with the results but we came back strongly against Bournemouth. We need it, if you want to challenge for anything in this league you need to win. We proved it on the pitch today and when we look at training sessions everyone is focused on what is coming up.”
And what is coming up is three important games for our season. There are not many teams that can say they are still in the three competitions at this stage of the season. For example Leicester are only involved in one, and Ranieri has the luxury of giving his players a mid-season break, but the Gunners have the FA Cup match against Hull, the massive match with Barcelona and back to the League again at Old Trafford. Would you rather be playing in those three or having a two-week holiday?
I know what I want. Arsenal to win all three and keep the dream alive. We just need to keep believing!
For all you WOB’s out there – #WENGERDOUBLEFISTPUMP
Hahaha
Even Wenger was ? ing himself at half time! ? ?
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves! We are NOT 10 points clear at the top mate!
If we beat the Spuds and City away then We will have a great chance of winning the league!
yesterday was epic. amazing feeling.
but akb’s are very quick to remind aob’s they are scum of the earth etc.
have we won the league?
we gave our selves a chance..see if your still so talkative at the end of the season
i agree the negativity shown by them is very taxing, it gets monotonous to read and honestly is very distasteful at times…but dont see how with no major success achieved as yet you can get back at them so confidently?
@muffdiver
Realness…
We have the most creative midfield but our problem is scoring goals…lets hope Wenger sticks with Wellbeck & Theo and parks the lamp post on the bench.
lamp post 6 games without scoring…4th place form!
What is a target man to you? A cross comes in and he knocks it down for a goal scoring opportunity for his teammate. He did it yesterday for the first goal. He did it last week for our first goal. He did it 2 weeks ago and Ozil didn’t get enough on the shot so the keeper dealt with it. He even tracked back 2/3 thirds of the pitch yesterday to break up a counter.
Every post it seems you take a shot at OG?
Damn right. Giroud was fantastic yesterday.
Again who are the deluded fans thumbing you down ? Walcott 2 goals in 18 games, Giroud hasn’t scored in 6 games, and Tottenham have a higher GD than us by ten, I repeat, TEN goals.
Lemme do yesterdays match player ratings
CECH – 8
BEL – 8
BFG – 8
KOS – 6.5
CHAM – 8
MON – 7.5
COQ – 7.5
RAM – 8.5
OZIL – 5.5
CHAMBO – 7.5
SANCH – 6.5
GIROUD – 10
WALCO – 8
WELBZ – 8
a win is a win and we ended up with 3 valuable points, But for a long time i thought our title hopes were over, Just goes to show we need a top top goal scorer !!!!!
Hahaha ??
You can believe as much as you want mate! ?
But with Koscielny and Gabriel missing, Barcelona will most definitely tear us apart….. It’s going to be an embarrassing score line ??
Esp with Messi and Suarez scoring for fun and even making a penalty pass.
that penalty pass was beautiful.
the cheek of it. the execution.
gushed when i saw it…like a lil bi***
I am of the mind we can pull off a massive shock in the CL….but after yesterdays game, I will gladly have ua throw the match and concentrate on the EPL….or does anyone here believe we can go on and win the CL???….i don’t so I will rather us concentrate on the league title because its very much within our grasp now and the further we go in the CL the more games we have to contend with….if there is anything opposite of the joy I felt after yetserdays game, its the sadness of seeing Spuds get 3 points too, God, how I hate that punny club
I can’t help but laugh at some of our fan’s! ??
We just about beat 10 men Leicester and they are celebrating as if we just won the treble! ….
Mission Complete! ? 4th spot is nearly safe! ? ? ?
Wenger is the Greatest, Give him another 20 years ??
The same fan’s, will be the first to vent their anger, if we only end up with the Wenger trophy!
Slow down… We are in the middle of February ffs! ?
Pipe own ffs, of course fans are delighted they have been listening to you for two weeks telling them how your an agony aunt who knows it all and how that’s all she wrote slash told ya so. You might find it hard to believe but there are Gooners out there who hope and believe in the team until it is finally finished and don’t see the sense in writing us off early.
To win the PL we have to score one more pont than tottenham and three more than leicester. If we do that it is unlikely that teams below us will catch up. Tottenham is in our hands, we have to beat them at home.
We have the hardest games on paper. A few seasons ago I would have said no chance, we could not beat top teams away from home. Now I think we have a good chance if our conversion of chances to goals improves. As many of us think, we need a consistent 25 goal a season striker who stays fit.
My heart says it will be Arsenal to win the title. My head says Tottenham, Leicester, Arsenal, ManC in that order.
oh my beloved arsenal.
why always you.
each season u promise so much yet u dissapoint.
why.
let the club look into the mirror and see the truth.
we will be champions if we deserve it. every game needs to be played like a finale. the problem with arsenal is that we are so god damn goal shy infrnt of the goal its unbelievable.
mertesackr missing headers who are harder to miss then to so score, ramsey constantly firing the ball outside the goal, and even sanchez is not firing how he should be. maybe the pressure is taking the best out of our players. i dont know. we need to focus.
Let’s win all three?
What the PL, UCL and FA?
Get off the pipe!
Was a good result against 10 men Leicester but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Think a few are getting slightly over confident on here. 1st, yes what an amazing win but it was not convincing by all means, 10men Leicester defended for their lives for fair play they deserve to be where they are at in the table… looked more the team than we did imo.
2nd, its one of many hard games we have won abso nothin yet but picking up the points when playing off form or ok is a good sign… One game at a time!
3rd, i am not saying we will beat Barcelona, esp the way they are tearing teams apart, But if we defend the way we have in some big away games then we have a chance but they do what we cant and score bucket loads, though both teams create alot so we need a scorer as they have 3 and Alexis looks outta form. Imo we get a hanmering if Boss is OUT.
CL we won’t win as I don’t think there is a team that can take the champions out. But the FA cup why not and the EPL well I just get that feeling that DW back gives us something different
A few things more what I liked about yesterday is …Walcott telling Giroud off for not running in on goal. Giroud roaring at Schmeichel to SHUT UP!. Coguelin pissed at Marhez for coming off slowly. Liked how Arsenal knew how important this game was and acted accordingly. In the past there were times you’d think a top of table clash was a training exercise. Also I liked how Walcott stayed out wide to make the pitch bigger opening up some gaps in defence.
That was the first time in a long time that Walcott played as a proper winger.I loved the way he stretched their defence
The look on Ozil’s face…yea,that one. Used to think he was angry at other team mates, but I think he holds himself to such a high standard he’s mad at himself. His smile after the goal was priceless.