Arsenal players under pressure not to blow another record

With Arsenal really needing to bounce straight back from the shock and disappointment of losing our first Premier League game of the season against West Ham, it is perhaps a very good thing that our next match is against Crystal Palace.

The Gunners have a fantastic record against the Eagles, having lost just twice in 34 attempts against them. We have never lost to them in the Arsene Wenger era and the last and only time we lost at Selhurst Park was in 1979. The Gunners have also won all four games since Palace returned to the Premier League a couple of years ago, so that is the good news.

The bad news, however, is that we also had a brilliant recent head to head record against West Ham until they turned up at the Emirates last Sunday. So while the Arsenal players are aware of us having this great record against our next opponents, Nacho Monreal has admitted to Arsenal Player that we are under real pressure to produce a perfect game in order to not let another record slip.

The Spanish left back said, “We have played many times against them away from home and we have won each time but we know they are a difficult team.

“They have really good players who are physically hard. We know it will be a difficult game but after losing our first match, we must win.

“We have to play like we know how. If every player gives 100 per cent then I think we will have many options to win the game.

“Obviously we have to make a perfect game from the first minute to the last and if we do that, I think we will win.”

The Arsenal team should also remember that Palace were a much better side in the second half of last season once Pardew took over, although we did still beat them on their own ground. The question is, will Arsenal manage to keep our record against them going strong?

Tags Monreal Pardew

25 Comments

    1. I’m not sure. Maybe
      However, we have some injuries (Wilshere, Welbeck and Rosicky)
      Also, Wenger has bought players on the final day the last two summers (Ozil and Welbeck). Possibly the trend could continue

      So it could go either way

      That said, Wenger needs to get a Top striker and Top DM in my opinion to challenge for Trophies

      1. … in your opinion!!?? The above ‘opinion’ has so far been repeated 25,999,999 times already on this forum! Boring or what?

  1. I want the tarnsfer window to close now. Im too depressed thinking about who will we sign.
    I am really tired of same thing repeating every season. I want Wenger out asap. I dont even care we finish 5th or 6th. Whats the point of playing in UCL when we get knocked out in last 16 every season no matter which team we face and have no chance of winning it.

    1. Stop slating Wenger we had enough class on the pitch to beat West Ham the easily. The players just didn’t turn up.

      1. But Andrew when :

        – the players don’t turn up or
        – the players aren’t good enough or
        -the wrongs tactics are employed or
        – the players are played out of position or
        – we don’t have a plan B or
        – we don’t have leadership on the pitch or
        – we haven’t strengthened the areas of the team that are weak

        then whose fault is it ?

        1. Still the players by a big margin. If you were manager then what? Change the whole squad? Let’s be serious. We lost because a) players had a day off and b) Wenger botched it with the game selection. Too defensive for me. Fsck if I understand Ozil. There are games where he’s totally gone. Wenger pays for being too close to the players. Most of the times works but sometimes it back fires. The players should repay him by giving their life on the pitch. Instead what they do? I am getting sick with this attitude from some players to be honest. Well, is only one game. I guess we will see.

        2. I agree with you. Wenger has no tactics whatsoever. He made a mistake taking santi out of CM. Ramsey should come off the bench at this point in time. He wants to score so badly its affecting his decision making and he is often too far forward. He needs discipline. Thats the only change i’d make for now. That or start him on the right wing like the backend of last season. He might not like it but he had some success there.

  2. We MUST and WILL beat CP.

    Forget the past, forget our record with CP. Means nothing. Players should Focus on our upcoming match and focus on WINNING

    COYG

    1. I have tried to give myself thumbs down but it didn’t work 🙂 Just to save someone time 🙂 Hell out of adversity comes humour 🙂

  3. A win and I will be both
    surprised and happy.
    A draw I would take.
    A loss and I will need
    a lot of mental strength
    to keep my spirits up 🙂
    I actually sense a good win
    coming up 5-0 to Arsenal.
    Gung ho maybe but why not 🙂

    1. Anything but a win would be disastrous for Arsenal, a draw would put us 5 points behind United, potentially Liverpool and City and 4 potentially behind Chelsea. As we saw last season those points proved very crucial come May.

  4. What the fans have seen in West Ham match is the possibility when we don’t turn up.

    But when we turned up….

    Defeated Manchester City away when they had pressure of winning title
    Defeated Manchester Utd away when they had pressure of advancing to next round of FA cup
    Defeated Liverpool at home when they had pressure of reaching top 4
    Defeated Chelsea at Wembley … well no pressure for Mourinho
    Defeated Monaco away 0-2 (the team with the meanest defense in whole CL)
    Produced brilliant run of form being named as best team in calendar year 2015… (for sometime)
    Defeated Aston Villa in convincing style to win the FA Cup

    And this happened only in last last 7 months… Who would have thought that Arsenal would go from 8th place to 2nd place??? (Sadly third place at the end)

    What I don’t like that fans quickly change their opinions after result of one bad game…. Before opening day…. all were in a festive mood, now it looks like we are going to get relegated like literally….

    Wenger and players know that the game was simply not convincing…. They would have realized that fact and will want to improve much better and show others who they really are…. So let us give players the chance to show fans against the flying Eagles what they really can do… COYG

    1. You’re right yes but ou failed to include the losses where we were under pressure.

      – The loss to Chelsea where were supposed to be title challengers
      – The 3 – 3 draw to Anderlecht where we were up 3 – 3 at half time
      – The loss to Swansea following the Anderlecht result where we were under pressure to get a good result
      – The 3 – 2 loss at Stoke where we were under pressure to pick up points to remain in the title challenge and were 3 – 0 down at half time
      – The 1 – 0 loss to United where we were expected to beat United with a worse injury crisis than ourselves
      – The 3 – 1 loss to Monaco after we were fully expected to beat the weakest opponent we could draw and finally kick on to the R16
      The 2 – 1 loss to Spurs where our resurgence was on and we had an outside chance at the title with both City and Chelsea slowing up
      The 0 – 1 loss to Swansea when 2nd was still in our hands as well as the 0 – 0 draw to Sunderland both at home

      Moreover the wins vs United, Monaco and City do more to detract from your point than bolster it as the pressure wasn’t on Arsenal in either of those matches, it was on the opposition. As far as the title race went it was down to City and Chelsea, Chelsea hadn’t played yet and City could have overtaken Chelsea with a win, no one expected anything but an Arsenal win. The reverse fixture in Monaco was seen as a result out of our reach, we weren’t given a chance of overturning that deficit. We hadn’t beaten United is years at Old Trafford and weren’t expected to either.

      The claim that what we saw was us not turning up is as pathetic and utterly unacceptable an excuse to use because we’ve been down this road before, WEEKS were spent hyping Arsenal up, players, fans and coaching staff alike spent weeks in advance talking about our real chances winning the league, our players back from injury and on the first game of the season, where we had renewed optimism and were swelling with expectation we cracked under the pressure to a team you expect to finish no higher than 8th.

      You posed the question “Who would have expected Arsenal to have gone from 8th to 2nd?”. My answer is everyone because that is what Arsenal are capable of under no pressure, furthermore there isn’t a single team with the quality bar Chelsea and City that would be as consistent as we are. It is under pressure that we falter and anything but a win vs Palace and serious questions will be asked.

  5. Utd is formidable now after multiple signings….

    City will be up there together with Chelsea

    it will be us and Liverfool fighting for 4th again…

    Same old story last 10 years…

  6. It’s an Alan Pardew side. That pretty much guarentees that we’ll score. It’s our defence that will win us this game.

  7. We also had an excellent record against WH, – no loss just 2 draws since 2007 – but the end result was something very disappointing and unexpected, until last week.

    It was after a very successful pre season and we could realistically expected to win and collect 3 points, so I would not be so confident again CL which had a good win last week.

    It is up to the manager to analyse the opponents, identify key / dangerous players and plan to contain them, select / change the tactics, select the players and when they do not do the right thing, replace them. It is also up to the manager to select a leader, who can lead on the field.

    The players supposed to “turn-up” and perform their best – their ridiculous weekly wages are not reduced as a result of a “no-show”.

    This performance from an artist – just as expensive as the Arsenal tickets – would be booed out of a stadium, would be unacceptable at almost all work places from very well paid people.

    Last week was a total failure on all fronts from all parties concerned. When a 16 years old from WH plays better than anyone from out full of stars team, at half time some major pep talk and tactical surgery should have been done. Arsenal was during the entire match predictable and a well organised defence could contain it. There will be more matches like that when a weaker opposition will organise their defence and trying to park the bus and lives on counter attack as well as our defensive weaknesses. Obviously it must be very hard to teach a defender to be next to to a dangerous man. Having a gollie on its day off did not help either, but the passing was a shocker and during the entire match we did not create a single clear cut chance, which even and off day striker can convert.

    Even if we would have Benzema or anyone else on the field on this weekend, this new player should be really exceptional as had virtually no time to get used to the existing team. This is why a smart manager does business as soon as the window opens so any new player can be integrated by the time they required to perform their best. It may take some money, but
    If we get to the CL semifinal or final vs being in the best 16 large part of the additional cost can be recouped on the additional matches, which means income. This does not require an economic degree, but common sense, which somehow missing at Arsenal.

    The suckers (supporters)? As long as they buy the goddies and fill the stadium and spend money, who cares? Not AFC management or AW.

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