Perhaps it was fitting for Arsenal and the way this season has gone that the game which effectively ended the fading title hopes for another year was pretty much the perfect definition of the season as a whole, as explained in a Sky Sports report. As the writer put it, the early promise, the collapse in the middle and the comeback just not quite enough to beat West Ham sums up our whole campaign.
Perhaps it was also fitting that it was against the same team that inflicted that shock opening day defeat and started to make the Arsenal fans have doubts after a perfect pre-season and Community Shield victory over the Chelsea of Jose Mourinho. Back then we all took that win as a great sign after Chelsea’s romp to the title the previous year but that loss to us was just the start of their problems this season.
Just like in the first half of the season, not only did we look like winning the game at Upton Park today, we played the sort of football that suggested we could be champions, with Ozil pulling the strings like some kind of footballing magician, until it all went spectacularly wrong in the middle section. Some dreadful defending from the Gunners, a bit like the Boxing Day battering in Southampton, left us reeling and when the comeback did start it was too late.
And just like the season as a whole, this game should make the boss realise he needs to act in the transfer market if he does not want the same thing happening yet again next year. Yes we may have had some bad luck with the injury list and some referee decisions but these things happen and surely having a stronger squad would have helped.
The question is, will the prof accept his mistakes and do something about them?
We don’t have the right players (tools) to do what the boss wants. First of all, we need a clinical striker. I don’t know if Welbeck is unfit or something, but he hasn’t shown that he’s that man to get us the goals. Secondly, we need another central midfielder to compete with Coquelin. Thirdly we need another winger to replace Walcott, Campbell or Oxlade-chamberlain. My preference is Draxler if he can get over his injury problems.
How about:
Higuain
Draxler
Xhaka
???
I think you are wrong. I believe the boss has exactly the right players to do what he wants and that is finish in the top 4 of the league and last 16 of the champions league.
The problem is the supporters do not have the right boss to do what they want and that is finish as the champions.
Best comment I’ve read in a while.
I feel battered and heart broken.surely thats it for the title,we now need a miracle.I think yesterday games shows arsens naivety and poor tactical approach.firstly,we were two goals up against a very gud side we were we still attacking seriously!!!!.we could hve removed the foot of the pedal and that game was done and dusted,but no we must keep attacking that sort of naivety has cost us,just luk at liec they just score one and protect it we score two and say attack attack embarrassing us fans
also the substitutions oh my !!,I don’t know how we managed even a point.those substitutions were shocking and if west ham kept on attacking we could hve been hammered bad .just luking at how other players played and u can see they hve given up and luck the belief.I hope we keep winning but I can see somesome heart broken players on the pitch I.e ozil just luk at how he is playing the lad has given up surely.
The substitutions got us a point. We were losing when the changes were made
It’s about who to take off. Ellerny should have stayed Sanches off as how stupid to put him back on the left side Awobi should have gone there Ramsy for Coqulin was ok but Ozil wow he just gives up when he loses the ball. Giroud was ok for Welbeck. How do you close out a game at 2-0 with players who are all offensive types playing Wengers way. So to close out game with the first half not over is stupid. Awobi lost a simple play in Middle and we got punished. why, because the defence plays to far up when we are in there final third and we fu:: k about from side to side back to keeper it’s pathetic. We have not the right players for back up still, with Rosickey Wilshire both if fit would have made the diff Caroll got the chances that he took with ease and on just one game is back to his best Wether he scores from now to end of season won’t matter he killed us in 5 minutes.When West ham were 3-2 up they still tried to add more and looked far dangerousness than us going forward. We have Ozil Sanches who when we are loosing there heads go down you don’t see that with West Ham,even the coach gets in on the game, Wenger and even Boulds are so laid back they look as if there watching a game of lawn bowls. You need to be on the line giving hope and encouraging your team even schooling if need be, they are paid to take the praise as well as the bad , so a new type of Manager that stands on the line and makes the decision to either close out game or add to win, Wenger apart fro Arteta Flamini who if 2 yrs younger would do it with attackers we have them, how ever when you make the subs at the right time can to alter the game is key and Wenger is not that type of person. CB
We keep talking of player we need to get and what positions we need cover for, conveniently overlooking the one thing that has to be changed or has to change before talking of players and that oa the manager….the rot starts from the top, we can change all the squad as far as am concerned if Wenger remains the manager and does not sort is head out then it will be more of the same no matter who we bring in…
Right mate…the rot starts from the top. change satan!
No need for Le prof to ractify any mistakes. What he need to do is leave. Let this be his last season in charge. Give him his statue, and accolades and whatever and say goodbye. Today all those AKB’s woke up to the painstaking reality that WOB’s were living in for years. Arsene is the problem!
Lift those banners high!
Chants echo through the sky!
No more bums on these seats!
Till Kroenke and Arsene leaves!
Change! Change! Is what we need
Oh see, how our Gooner hearts do bleed
Arsenal! Arsenal! We came to see
Instead we leave with hearts full of greave
Kroenke leave!
Arsene leave!
For the sake of our beloved Arsenal Please!
Thanks mate # Arsenal revolution
overall South-Americans expect for players like godin and few others are bad in defending. Arsenal definitely need to add height in midfield. Sloppy play and lack of defending skills is making this team look bad. The league has some good defenders who would accept the chance to play for Arsenal from lesser leagues with more conviction.
why do people praise koscienly?He is not and has never been worldclasss
Coquelin is just above average.
Sanchez has been just good he is not a game changer.
Wenger thinks we are barca thats why he does not buy tough tacklers and beastly midfielders and we also lack height.
For how long will we keep having this
We started 9 average players yesterday and I hate how wenger loves to gamble.
Thanks to the ref we got something out of that game
My horse in the Grand National fell at the 2nd fence, Wengers horse fell at the 1st.Typical.
Wenger out ASAP
“And just like the season as a whole, this game should make the boss realize he needs to act in the transfer market if he does not want the same thing happening yet again next year. ”
The reason the same thing keeps happening IS because of the boss. Players have come and gone over the last 10 years or so but these patterns have remained because the boss has remained.
This boss is not capable of delivering a team with a killer instinct. This team can not stay focused for 90 minutes let alone one season. He doesn’t want leaders he wants followers. He doesn’t want input, he wants sheep. This team is large build up of characterless yes boys who don’t know how to impose themselves in games when things go wrong, neither do they have the ability to end a game after leading by 2 goals.
This man has been given way too much influence at this club for way to long.
Did it all start to crumble when Dean left? I don’t know. But I do know that to think the outcome would have been different or will be different next season because we buy one or two players is naive IMO.
100 % spot on mate. No amount of players added will change the rotten mentality of the club
Sorry but people keep on saying new players yet I have seen many games this season, including yesterday, where the AFC team was superior yet did not take 3 points.
New players would do just the same. The issues lie elsewhere…….
yesterday?we.The superior team??!
You are kidding right?.
The ‘boss’ should go be a boss somewhere else.
Wholesale changes needed: Wenger out and Kroenke too.
Don’t accept what has become status quo for our club and stay silent or the board will hand him another contract to ensure more years of underachievement (on the football field and not in fiscal terms).
I agree with many opinions expressed here except that Arsene Wenger is not going next season because he has already said so. Perhaps many of us are wrong because Leicester has defied all odds and are heading for the title. Is there any way one can explain Leicester’s ascendance? No pundit anywhere on this earth could have predicted this and who can say it is a one-off? All those who want Wenger out are still accusing him of failing to do what the other big teams have done but still failed to stop Leicester. Instead Wenger should be accused of one offense, failing to make his team work as a unit and be ruthless in all departments. If all Arsenal players were playing as a unit we would not be conceding stupid goals or failing to close down teams in the mid field neither would we be failing to score goals. We need to analyse using new tools not the oft rehearsed buy more expensive players etc. How expensive are Leicester’s players? Who before this year knew Mahrez or Vardy? Ranieri has done what no other manager has ever done. He assembled a team of cheap but talented and hard working players and drilled them into working very hard as a team, playing for one another and instilled into them a never say die attitude. You can see the results now. I bet many small teams are going to try and emulate Leicester city. Who knows? This could lead to a footballing revolution in England. We could have ‘democratisation’ of winning titles in England rather than a monopoly by a few top teams as has been the case previously. There is a beginning to everything. The idea of spending more and more money has utterly been shattered this season. Instead teams will now learn to do proper scouting so as to get the right calibre of players. With the right manager and attitude a team has moved from bottom of the table to the top! Isn’t this wonderful? And yet some of us continue to advocate for big name players and spending more money. We can continue in our vanity but the tide has changed and who can say it is a one-off?