Important win marks the best chance in years to reclaim the league title by KM
Well, a very good day to all of you Arsenal ladies and gentleman! It was a fine week for the Arsenal family worldwide as we escaped the group stage leaving the joy of Thursday night for our north London neighbours and finish it off with an easy win against a rock bottom Aston Villa side.
Now there was a game to forget on Sunday. I mean it was one of the poorest games of football I’ve watched in a while, but a win after an away game in Europe is a welcome sight for me. Still, Villa are so terrible, I just don’t see them coming back even if they hire Mourinho, who’s in a relegation battle of his own.
We got ourselves to an early lead thanks to Walcott getting the better of Hutton, which eventually led to a well deserved penalty. I don’t get it why people hammer the referees so much, when it took them 5 seconds to make a decision which was overall correct? Would they be happier if it wasn’t given? Same incident at Liverpool where West Brom were denied an offside goal – again, the correct decision. I’d rather wait 5 seconds than let a wrong decision disrupt our game.
The only other notable thing from the game was our simple passing for our second goal. Ramsey showed desire to get the ball back and then Theo sent Ozil through who slipped it onto Aaron, who made a nice spring and it was 2-0. In the second half, we really didn’t try at all to do something other than wait out the final whistle and although Villa tried to show some spirit they are really short on quality.
Funny banner from their fans saying “Forget the Arsenal, we are Aston Villa”, might as well transcript into “Forget the premierleague, we are in the championship”. Regardless of their misery, I have never seen English top flight division so poor when it comes to the top teams. I watch as much games as I can during the weekend since I just love the league, but in all fairness it’s never been so inconsistent.
Now surely the media will put it as interesting and unpredictable, but of course when you sell a product for 5 billion pounds you’d put it like this, but i watched a City side the other day full of expensive talent, fail to beat a demoralized Swansea team, who recently sacked their manager. Worst of all they got immense luck with their goal and Joe Hart saved them a few times.
With the squad that they have, they should be a dominant force. Worse though was the performance of their fellow cityman from United who got beaten at Bournemouth and LVG is exposed for the fraud manager that he is, so badly he turned on the fans. Next up not so far in the north-west come Liverpool who also needed a slice of luck to get a point of off West Brom at home, despite opening the score.
I like what Klopp did at the end to lift the spirits and connect the crowd with the fans, but with the money spent, Liverpool surely could do better. And last but not least, Spurs, who’d only lost the first game of the season, got beaten by Newcastle at home. Oh I forgot Chelsea but, look this has been coming for some time. In 2008 England had 3 teams in the semi-finals of the CL and now 3 barely scrapped past their groups.
I feel like the top teams here have bad management. With the amount of resources local clubs have the standard should be much higher. Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and Juventus are recent examples of teams with less resources but excellent management. Now Arsenal has been inconsistent for probably the past 10 years under Wenger, but the demise of the other top forces in England is spectacular to say the least.
We face City next and if they repeat the performance of Saturday, they’ll be there for the taking. If we could balance the squad out for the Christmas period we’ll have the best chance of winning this league title in years. Mondays game with City could be a title decider in disguise, because realistically looking all the others are either in shambles or covering up the truth, because they sit close to the top.
Anyway, the past 2 games saved our Champions League campaign, and we are top of the league, even if it stays just for day! I’m happy with that, hope you are as well. Cheers!
Konstantin
We need Francis Coquelin for this one
This is by far the best premier league season in years. I believe its mostly down to the increased quality and number of managers coming to the pl.
stoke have shaqiri.
west ham have payet
ayew at swansea
players like these in mid table teams??
only in the premier league
most exciting league bar none
@muffdiver
And Leicester have Mahrez and Vardy…
And the new tv deal.. Allows the lower and mid-table teams to make quality additions.
Beat man city then next ..
This definitely is the right game for everyone to see if Mathieu Flamini can carry Arsenal during Coquelin’s absence or if we definitely need a new DM (like most people including myself think).
I have faith in a good result bring them on!
i do not believe he can
but i believe in kos cech our forward line.
we put in a shift we can do it.
flam shows he hasnt got the bite or reading coquelin has.. at all
naturally stil support him but have my reservations
@muffdiver
If only Flame could/would show the same grit and skill in every match as he does in the NLD’s, then we’re good till Le Coq returns…
If one game were really able to predict the future, coaching would be much simpler. But if Flamini performs well it is at least a favorable indication – not at all a guarantee.
I was pleased with Flamini vs. Villa because he showed better position discipline – he held better to the DM role rather than roaming too far forward as he has in other recent games.
But let us face it, Arsenal only have 1 DM capable of handling top level opposition consistently and he is injured. Flamini is past his prime and not really top level capable. And Arteta has been very good for Arsenal but he is NOT a DM. Chambers has played DM one time and it was not pretty.
All this suggests the need for a DM is a top priority just as it was last summer.
It’s not as simple as that unfortunately. Arsenal, Leicester, city, United, Chelsea (just kidding) all have a chance.
Take it one match at a time.
Lets beat City first
I want to believe that our key to winning the BPL title lies in what we do during the January transfer window.
The present team is good though (so are Leicester and Man City)…we need additional quality for the final run.
My opinion. 🙂
break d walls of citeh
chase away d foxes
sink chelship
neutralize manure
drown liverpool
bottle up d spuds
LIFT THE LEAGUE!!!!
i’m getting thumbs-down for saying……. ARSENAL should Lift the TitLe…… Ridiculous one coming from Trolls (they can’t be normal fans) L()L
F. No!!. This will be not a matter of beat this and we will get it. Like le frog always says. Its marathon.
Buy players so we will not end up short in the end.
Watching Flamini tackle was cringe worthy, i almost threw up every time he went for a tackle and a player just went around him. This is who we have to play against Yaya? I would gamble and put young chambers in the middle and tell him to sit deep, let ramsay go up for the attacks.
I recall a certain Southampton midfielder a few years back bossing the all mighty Barca midfield in an Epic Champions League upset in Scotland.
Love to see it again
Heroics in the Celtic game.
talk of wanting wayama in an Arsenal shirt…….. L()L…… He’s not really my 1st choice tho
Of course Man City is a big game – it is a chance for a 6 point swing.
But……..
2 seasons back when Arsenal led the league for 128 days, they would have won if they had just beat the “lesser” teams – the teams they should have been able to handle.
Yes Arsenal could have lost to ALL the big clubs and still won the league. Simple math proves it. But they lost to some of the other clubs and that sealed their fate. Points are points no matter where you get them.
If Arsenal win all the games vs. the teams below the top 4, they will win the league – guaranteed.
Perfectly stated Mohawk,
The recent West Brom and Norwich results are transparent examples of why the Gunners fail to seriously challenge for the EPL and often struggle to hang on to the Wenger trophy every calendar year.
Just perusing last years fixtures and discounting the losses to Chelsea and Manure Arsenal dropped roughly 10 points against the likes of Southampton, Swansea(lost 2x), Stoke, Sunderland, Leicester, Hull City, Liverpool(96 minute Skyrtel equalizer playing a man down). I concede that the Premier league is the most competive professional league in world football and every team loses a game or two they shouldnt(especially on the road) but unfortunately when you only able to secure 7 out of 24 available points against Manure/Shitty/Spuds/Cheshit you CANT drop points in such fixtures.
If Arsenal just drew against Spuds/Manure and beat Swansea , Sunderland, Hull and Liverpool wed be defending EPL Champs
Hypitheticals I know, but damn Arsenal let it get away last year
This is like a 3rd or 4th article in a row by KM that’s not focusing on Wenger, but instead on our players, formation, injuries, title race, etc… Konstantin, did you get laid or something? 🙂 Well, whatever it is, keep it up, dude, I’m actually enjoying your pieces recently.
As for Man City and our title chances, I think we have as good a shot as any other team in the top 4 at the moment. In fact, I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and say that we’re playing a much better football right now than anyone else in the league. It’s wide open, and I’m just hoping that we don’t drop stupid points like we did in recent weeks to West Brom and Norwich. Then again, the same can be said about other teams with title aspirations. So for the first time in a long time, I’m actually quite optimistic, and wish all of our boys to stay healthy and fit in the very busy upcoming holiday schedule. Good luck, Gunners, and I hope you all make us happy and proud!
So often it seems to come down to 2 things.
1. Wenger stubborn adherence to a rigid tactical approach – playing a high def line vs counter attacking opposition etc. But Wenger seems to have mostly shed that problem the past couple seasons, so I will assume for now it is resolved.
2. Injuries: Depending how you view it …… Arsenal then fail because of “bad luck” or “transfer failures” or “improper training regimen” etc.
Let us hope Wenger is able to solve the injury problem – transfers? internal promotions? tactical changes? Whatever he decides, it is then his approach that will either fail or succeed.
I have 2 comments:
1. On the performance I saw yesterday against Aston Villa, even the poorest of Mancity will hammer us!
2. English league is suffering because the distribution of resources is to equal, surelly big teams should be rewarded handsomely. The league is not attractive because of Stoke City.
I think you are wrong there. City weren’t exactly at their best when they played Swansea, monchengladbach or Stoke in their last three games.
Arsenal will have the upper hand in next weeks game. City invested £150m in squad and they are level on par with Arsenal this season. Their only a solid unit when Kompany, Toure, Silva and Aguero play.
All I hope is that there is no controversy when we play Barcelona and our team actually turns up for both games. Last time we were winning 3-2 vs Barcelona in the 2nd leg (40 minutes to go roughly). Van Persie then gets a quick 2nd yelow and from there Barcelona then score 2 goals one of which was a penalty.
flamini wont be able to stop yaya toure and besides if we dont see a good ref in the centre, then this fernandino and fernando who are very physical and rough might injure our players.
Against teams we have been playing recently in coqs absence, our midfieeld has been alittle too porous. am scared we wont be able to contain toure and silva.