Arsenal badly need a lucky break by Sam P
When Arsenal traveled to face Southampton at the end of December with the chance to go top of the Premier League it was certainly a bad night and the below par performance was heavily punished by a 4-0 defeat. But Arsene Wenger was still right to point out that three of the four goals should not have stood and with the stats showing that we had the same number of shots on target as them, you could certainly say that luck was not on our side last night.
And I am struggling to remember a game since then when it was, apart from Flamini’s yellow card against Bournemouth when it could have been red. The rest of the time it has all been the other way. It certainly was on the side of Swansea last night as replays clearly showed that neither of their goals should have stood. It was a blatant foul on Ozil and then Ashley Williams was stood in an offside position when Sigurdsson whipped in his free kick. What was the linesman doing on that free kick so that he missed it?
Even after that the luck was with them as Williams knew little about his goal, it just hit him from Cech’s parry. Yes we should have been better but with even a teaspoon full of luck we would still have won that game and it seems to me that we just cannot catch a break of any kind right now.
People are wondering why our form and confidence is so bad but I think the cumulative effect of nothing going our way for game after game has got to the players and probably the manager as well. They say that a striker on a scoring drought or a team in a slump sometimes just needs a lucky goal or a lucky result to get them out of the rut and I think that is true of Arsenal and the likes of Alexis and Giroud.
Smashing the woodwork three times, shots defleted narrowly wide, rebounds going straight to defenders or their keeper and penalty claims going begging, while the opposition has two shots on target and score twice while both should have been disallowed. Are you really suggesting that Arsenal were NOT unlucky last night?
Unless it changes against Tottenham on Saturday, what chance have Arsenal got of breaking this cycle?
i need frank rijkaard at arsenal
if you believe that…you need a cat scan
Of course luck plays a role in the outcome of games. No body should deny that. Having said that teams winning championships don’t rely on luck or force their own luck. You can not hide behind luck as a factor for not winning.
To me most of our losses where not the result of bad luck but rather of poor defending. As Wenger even admitted the goals conceded to Barca where nearly identical to the goals conceded to Monaco. Good teams fix their mistakes. We repeated them. Same against Man U.
We over commit going forward and lose our defensive discipline and shape. That is the reason we concede easy goals, not bad luck IMO.
But it’s up to the manager to get a leader who will remind the team what is at stake in a game, we have no leaders and the manager is to blame for it. Arsenal should be ashamed to rely on an excuse such “luck”, if you give up a 5 point lead and end up 5 points behind the team you were ahead you weren’t unlucky, just very poor and mentally weak. Leicester and Tottenham don’t rely on luck, they get the job done consistently because they have someone who can properly utilize their players and motivate them to give 110% each game.
Bad luck happens a lot to Arsenal simply because they don’t prepare well for games or fight hard.
Sometimes, when the going was cool’ you see Arsenal do get lucky @ times and get some results…
Now’, Things look sour so don’t expect luck to go your way..
Look @ Leicester and even Spurs. Some games you think they will lose but they someone win or draw..(Example Leicester v Norwich, Leicester v West Brom, Spurs v Swansea, Manc vs Spurs etc) Good luck meets preparation and the outcome is favourable.
Bad Luck is not Arsenal main problem. Tactics, Team selection and poor substitutions is killing Arsenal at the moment. We even scored first against Swansea’, but still lost the game. We give our opponents chances to come back. In fact, we are pretty poor off the ball and our possession football has been abysmal recently..
Wenger really does need to have the decision to resign taken out of his hands.I’m all for a face saving resignation, he deserves that at least. A move upstairs and a young coach who’s job would be just to concentrate on the 1st team only.
unlikely . stan sees his value.
the model works, thats undeniable
not for the fans but as a business, he an ivan have worked wonders
It’s funny how luck seems to follow confidence, and that is because there is no such thing as luck. We played better yesterday coz JC was on. He was hungry andvwanted it. We tookmhim off we went back to the last 10 games. We ecame more narrow less attacking allowing themmto come at us more. We fell back. We stopped believing, we conceeded the goal. That’s not luck that’s the players not understanding the managers decisions.
you make your own luck. it really is that simple.
when you choose to be the tsar of a football club and get paid 8 million annually to do so,the buck stops with you,
fans are made to overspend for there tickets yet the club wont do the same with buying players….does that seem fair to anyone?…
this summer we will buy one marquee player and all will be forgotten like it is every year. we will claim we are gonna dominate europe, then comes 4th an r16 in cl-
all this talk of well its 6 point everyone dropped points whats the problem were still in it….happy to win a title thru failure of others….pathetic attitude of the kinda fans i rarely see at the emirates but are online with a megaphone
congrats lads….got that winners mentality 😉
In all honesty, I think Wenger has overstayed his welcome at Arsenal. He needs to go to allow fresh minds into the technical direction of the team. I read supporters were not even happy with his substitution of Campbel yesterday during the game, and a manager of his calibre could not see how bad such judgement will be? It is a joke to take GBP 8M annually for what Mr Wenger is doing to the team. Arsenal cannot even compete against Leicester and Tottenham? It is sickening!
Time has come AW to go end of of now. The players don’t want to play for him anymore simple as that. AS wants to go Ozill won’t be back next season. But what manger could come in and do a job? Pep gone kloop gone. Go get the spuds manager and pay him what he wants
OT:
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OT:
As much as I’d want to vent at the whole Arsenal team, manager or the board, I must voice my disappointment at the English fans out there. You guys are the ones who are holding the torch for all the Gooners worldwide. Being an Indian Gooner I find it baffling that there wasn’t even a single person in on the stands yesterday who held a banner demanding change even after the horror show at Trafford. They were all getting cosy and hoping that the team would show up. Then guess what they erupt outside the stadium after the loss. As a dedicated fan I can only ever hope to effect a change by using the social media but the fans in England should really use their advantage of being able to directly visit these games and demonstrate their vexation. I mean c’mon guys grow a pair and show the management that we are not pansies here getting whacked off our money and dreams for over decades now.
dude u dont understand several times banners get out out stewards come take them down.
its like the kremlin haha
yesterday there was none, but believe me fans have tried last few seasons, some saying spend some money , some wenger out stan out etc.
but those banners dont last long, it looks on tv like we are shook an only talking tough once game ends- not the reality mate believe me
Sorry man I know that won’t be the case but am just so dilapidated with the whole situation. I don’t even know where to start and where to end.
Giroud hitting the bar with goal at his mercy is not bad luck, its poor finishing.
And about that campbell substitution, i too was baffled by it cos he was our best player on the day but given that how he hadnt played for past many games he must have been a little out of fitness and so the decision was somewhat justified. The previous few times when we lost title race it was bcos we lost players to injury but this time almost whole squad is available and we are still ….u know.
Just saw the highlights of the match. Giroud’s crossbar was indeed just bad finishing. He had all the time in the world, he wasn’t even pressed that intensively.
Bad finishing, once again cost us this match. Oh and Wenger with his idiotic subs.
@optimisticgooner Wenger’s decision to hook Joel off was about trying to justify his erratic decision not to play or use him as a sub in the ManU game. Everyone wanted Welbz on last night and AW hoped he would be able to out play JC. He can’t coz JC is a genuine genius and different to Welbz (I like Danny too, don’t get me wrong). It backfired big time so he says he was tiring, well dah yeah he was running the hame on the right with HB, but another 10-15 mins with Danny on for Giroud was the play hence the booing from the crowd. Now I know you Wenger lovers will balk and whine, but I know some of you know how good JC is, and we all know how bl#@dy minded AW can be. So you know in your heart of heart this aint far off the truth. Joel’s face when he was hooked told you he wasn’t tired, and that sub lost us the game coz after that HB became withdrawn in his play.
A little out of topic here.
For long enough now epl has been accustomed to fast and direct wingers, wingers who only have to run to the flag and put in the cross, and sometimes try and score. I was blinded by the pace of our wingers like theo and ox or rather the hype of their pace and expected big things from them. We all did. But its more clear now that wingers are not only supposed to put in crosses but cut in and do EVERYTHING that a midfielder should do. The players that justifies this most is mahrez.
Ps. I am/was a walcott fan and was hugely optimistic about him, but whats been happening these past few months is shambolic.
I like Walcott too, he is a shadow of himself at the moment. he needs some coaching I think rather than philosophy (TH14 and AW gelled perhaps more than Theo). You can tell a player is down when they don’t want the ball and his number of touches tells the story. Yet earlier covering for Alexis on the left he was awesome both in attack and unusually for him sometimes in defence. I don’t think SB as our coach is good enough. I think sometimes AW needs someone in his face like DB10 use to do.
Sorry also missed about Mahrez. AW is a brilliant man, but he is isolated now. Back in 2006 he was surrounded by other brilliant people David Dein, DB10, PV4 etc. Whether AW liked it he had to take notice of them they were strong charicters and in DDcase I suppose his boss. DB10 and PV4 lead on the field and on the training ground. Dein did thd transfer business. Really and truthfully, we need Dein back and I would add DB10 tomorrow.
The question is why did Campbell not play for the past few games. Was he injured? Had he played poorly? I thought he deserved more minutes than he got based on his decent play and the poor form of the likes of Ox and Theo.
Campbell had a decent run of games going and then for no obvious reasons he is taken out of the games and we get Ox back who was struggling for games.
If he wasn’t played because of injury I could understand but it seems more like one of the strange decisions of Wenger than because of poor play.
Arsenal will be unlucky again on Saturday. A soft penalty and a needless red card 🙁
Wechave a fortune teller! Please tell me who will win the league. And will that lovely lady I’ve been chasing ever give in?
here is a prediction, arsenal will not win the leuage and thats all we have to know
The team with the most goals will win the league 🙁
The lovely lady you’ve been chasing belongs to another man 🙁
Lol, Arsenal till now was the luckies team for the past 15 years. Just imagine how many times we have beaten other teams for the 4th place in the last days of the seasons. Just try to remember.
Arsenal Movie of the Year…2016
Title: YOYO
Location: Emirates,England and Europe
Budget: £1.2B
Cast: Arsenal Players , Fans(villains)
Running Time: 2015/2016
Exec Producer: Stan and Sir Keswick
Director: Arsene Wenger
Picture Quality: WLLDDWLLLWLLDDWLLL
Resolution: 4th
Ratings:?????????
Coyg
You make your own luck
2. Not signing outfielders in the summer was unheard of for top European clubs. Not only that but instead of righting the wrongs of the summer he signs £5 million Eleney than a top Dm. I have nothing against Eleney. He is a good midfielder but it was a risk and he isn’t a pure Dm but a b2b cm and we already have Wilshere, Ramsey, Cazorla, Ox.
Strange decisions like substituting Campbell after he scored a goal
3. Keeping faith in Giroud, Welbeck and Walcott (who received a £140,000 per week salary) instead of getting a top CF or goal scorer. None of them are as good as Vardy, Kane or Aguero (Well, if they are they haven’t shown it yet.)
4. Our players have no determination out there and lack of leadership
If Spuds or Leicester win the PL it will be a huge embarrassment and disgrace. Especially since it could be the first time we finish ahead of United, City, Liverpool, Chelsea and still not win the PL.
Chelsea got rid of Mourinho, City got rid of Pelligrini for Guardiola and United Van Gaal for Mourinho probably. Wenger must get the boot even if we finish 2nd. Unless Wenger can win us the PL. I Will completely back Wenger if he can turn this around. I have no hatred for the man but his decision making has been horrid so far.
very true indeed..bad luck plays ramsey and og week in week out,bad luck subed alexis for walcott and da same bad luck subed jc for welbz.finaly bad luck will b travelling wd us to WHL this wkend.!
Look man this unlucky excuse can’t go on & on…luck is part of football but the best teams manage to nullify that factor with there quality & Win regardless 8-9/10.
Giroud as much as I like the player & his game (work rate, build up plays, flicks, headers, occasional wonder goal) is not & never will be a 25+ goals/season striker that is simply not who he is in the EPL. He is a player that gets hot & also very cold in front of goal!!
Walcott hasn’t progressed in the 10 years his been at the club & has been rewarded for it with a golden contract. No wonder he doesn’t see the urgency to do much (no clinical finish, no drilling ability like step overs & other fancy skills, not he best passing & work rate). All he has going for him is the speed & movements off the ball. Also not a 25+ goal/season striker & never validated his need to play centrally sorry! He hasn’t added much weapons to his game like great players do & his not even a leader in that locker room after 10 YEARS!!
Sanchez is a “special case” nobody envision him being so goal shy this season, compare it to last season if he had scored the same amount of goals we would’ve won more games. Ramsey has been average in a lot of areas this season (decision making, poor last 3rd passing, dangerous plays with over dribbling that leads to counter attacks exposing the team, lack of goals, lack of discipline). He should’ve been benched or sub out a couple times!
All of that is not on Wenger as he is not the one shooting that ball when the occasion comes. Specially if he sees in training that everything is well.
But it is his fault to blindly trust some players, allow them to continue to play an average game & even reward them with a better contract & more minutes. Is it an issue of proving us wrong?
1) Sends the wrong message to young players coming into the squad
2) Sends the wrong message to the players concerned: comfortable
3) Doesn’t develop a winning culture
At teams like Bayern, Barca & Real (the extreme) fail to live up to your contract or club expectation & you will soon be on the bench than in the stands than will probably have to look out for another club in the summer after a 1 -2 years (coach, management will let you know). I really like the patience that AFC shows as it as allowed some great young players (and it keeps attracting them) to develop but there should always be a limit & the coach, the club should know when to say we’ve seen enough, his never going to get there lets cut our losses!! That is the next step to make sure that when they get there they don’t want to leave!
I heard that at the end of the 2013-14 season, Arsenal held 40% of the entire leagues finances.
Now recently with our cash reserves update, I’ve heard only Real Madrid and Man Utd sit better than us with incoming revenues in the entire world of football.
Have you ever heard that you make your own luck in this world? 17 years in a row we have been in the Champions league, we have been in 1 final with no sign of the trophy. Is that bad luck? I don’t think so. We are not a force in Europe we are and will always be also ransom as long as wenger is in charge. For a few seasons we have challenged for the league but with the lack of depth we ended up the same………also rans. How many more unlucky years are we going to have before someone realises it’s the to..l at the helm which is the problem. Luck! Nothing to do with it, you buy rubbish they play rubbish. (Ozil & Sanchez not in that category )
Oh I get you. So Arsenal don’t need to just won the league every year they need to win the champions league as well. Hmmm are you being realistic?
I just Dnt knw Y many fans r complaining abt sub….Campbell play well in first half bt his no were to b find in second half…..u pple shud go nd watch d highlight…I bliv arsenal ll get back