If Arsene Wenger reads papers and heeds to Arsenal supporters, the last week would have been quite tiresome. After the opening game loss to West Ham United, there were all sorts of news for Wenger – advice on formation, players, whom to purchase, everything!
The loss may have stung the manager but he’s showing clear signs of calm ahead of the next game against Crystal Palace. Wenger says there is no reason the opening-day defeat should stop the Gunners from having “a strong season”.
The bitter truth is that the optimism from the successful pre-season has been crashed by the untimely loss to West Ham. Every year the hopes ride high before the start but this year the results created enough room for expectations.
Ahead of the trip to Crystal Palace, Wenger has challenged his team to respond at Selhurst Park. He knows that his opponents will be no easy pushovers, especially playing at their home.
“We have analysed what happened to us, but we don’t have to go overboard with what happened. It is a defeat and it hurts, but that shouldn’t take our belief in our potential away.”
Another thought on Wenger’s plate is the scrutiny of Petr Cech’s performance. The former Blues goalkeeper joined the Gunners early in the window and was hailed as the “last piece of the puzzle” for Wenger. But, his debut performance left much to be desired and was widely criticized for the loss. Wenger quickly rubbished the critics and said that the whole team was at fault for the loss.
Wenger may have been criticized in the past for being unambitious and not aggressive enough, but he’s pragmatic. The manner of our loss should definitely hurt Wenger but the dropping of points may not yet hurt him much until the end of the season. The Super Sunday clash at Selhurst Park provides a second chance for the Gunners to start their title challenge. Any more dropped points would keep the criticism flowing from all directions for Wenger. And he may not be able to ignore it much longer….
Sridhar
Whats happening at Arsenal? It’s supposed to be THE season… now we’re at 19th, MU keeps winning, Man City in good form, Chelsea drew, but still above us..but we dontg sign anyone. EVEN NO RUMOURS in the last month.. never been so quiet. Wenger is preparing for something big? or we just dont sign any player at all..? very disappointing now. I cant wait till September WHATS HAPPENING??
Lolz @red14, you have nothing to worry about, we will finish strongly and earn a 4th place trophy.
You wouldn’t happen to be one of those fans saying that in the beginning of every season until after a couple of setbacks ..then changing your tune to we aren’t going to make the top four mark my words.
Well yous were wrong on every occasion about not making top four and yous were wrong about last season coming fourth at best and yous were also wrong when saying Arsene is incapable of again winning silverware. We are winning again so you need to change the record.
Wenger has put together a very strong squad. It could do with something more but it is still a very capable strong squad. It was a pity that Cech had such a debut but we need to put that behind us as the whole landscape does change in a very short time. This is the first season in a long time that media/pundits are liking what they see all the way through the Arsenal squad. Not all of them have backed Arsenal to win but they do all say we are going to be chelseas biggest challengers, many have backed us for top spot.
This has not changed, after the wham defeat they still sung the same tune and Souness in particular pointed out how Arsenal fans should not lose fate and not to go overboard when reading into it. He says after the first six games things settle in and you can get a better idea of the true nature.
what?………No rumour?………..hahahahaha……..well, thank God u r awake now……while u were asleep, we have been Linked with even ur grand-dad …..L()L
I HAVE NO PROBLEMS WITH ARSENE BEING CALM. BUT IF WE LOSE THE GAME TO CRYSTAL PALACE (This is one of their best teams in years) we would be deluded to CONSIDER US AS TITLE CONTENDERS. Man U IS ALREADY SHOWING WHAT SHOULD BE HAPPENING IF YOU WANT TO WIN THE TITLE. —- Win ugly if you have to, accept no defeats. ESPECIALLY NOT AT HOME!!
This Arsenal habit of losing at home in front of 60,000 fans is becoming a regular and annoying habit. AND WE LOSE TO AVERAGE TEAMS!!!! AND DO SO WITHOUT ANY FIGHT. When we lose we look so ordinary. This is why so many dont have confidence in the team
As Wenger himself has admitted, the league gets tougher every season, the more reason why wenger needs to be quicker and smarter in the market. IF WENGER CLAIMS THERE IS NO QUALITY IN THE MARKET, THEN SHOW US YOU HAVE QUALITY ALREADY BY MAKING THE RIGHT SELECTION AND WIN CRUCIAL GAMES. If we keep losing to teams like west ham, this defeats his argument.
NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE SAYS, WENGER WOULD HAVE TO PROVIDE ANSWERS IF WE PERFORM BELOW EXPECTATION THIS SEASON
@joejoe………NiceLy TaiLored!
Wenger preparing for something big you ask. I asked the same thing on deadline day last year – he brought in Welbeck (!!!!!)
No, wenger is going to disappoint you all
Well nit picking is just no good for anyone, if you can’t see that we got something special in last seasons window well then your judgement can’t be trusted …you twist facts to suit your bashing.
By something special I am referring to Alexis.
To put the game against WH into context look what happened Barcelona last night – a 4:0 defeat.
Now none of us belief Barcelona are rubbish.
Poor results happen but over the course of the season the quality will rise to the top.
It’s just a pity we have only managed over the course of the summer to bring in Cech. Granted it’s not easy to get superstars in but it’s not as hard as Wenger makes it out to be – you bid and by d high which is what all the top clubs do.
They had a real bad day at the office that dont happen real often for them….
They recently lost 3-1 to United and lost 2-1 to Firontina
Last 6 matches
Lost 3
Drew 1
Won 2
Yep in preseason.
Means nothing.
Still, could you imagine the uproar in here.
Yeah thatz because it happen to barca once a while, but in arsenal we are used to it.
I think Basil has clonked you over the head one too many times.
Agree with you but the Barcelona comparison is myopic. Barcelona won the league, the Copa Del Rey and the CL embarrassing the then English champions, the French Champions, the German Champions before putting the Italian champions to the sword. They won more trophies this year than we have in 10+ years.
That stating facts actually gets thumbs down on this site tells me all I need to know about the delusional state of mind of many arsenal fans … There is no comparison they are on a different footballing planet from us
Being to Eagles stadium…its a small cramped but noisy intimidating arena. Pardew has added some technical players to his physical athletic team, just hope & pray we come away with a win but have my doubts.
True talk…….. But have u ever wondered why its so quiet at the emirates?……. We should relocate to wembley you think???????
Keeping it simple and efficient tomorrow. Restoring our dynamic duo- carzola and coquelin. Utmost concentration for 90 minutes. Knowing we have 37 final cup games on hand. Educating Ramsey that he can’t be Lampard and Iniesta at the same time. Then we should be fine.
Exactly…
Wenger need to play the players at their best position…
and not squeeze every CM to the field…
the best thing to do at the moment is to just get a convincing and great win against palace first, and set up the high confidence levels for the crunch match against Liverpool next week. we want to put them to the sword, so we can lay down an early marker to the other top title rivals. if we can record a good win against Liverpool, we will be back in the game and surging with confidence. its funny sometimes a good couple of big wins can change a lot around in a short space of time, lets get to the end of august first, then we will see the lay of the land a bit better overall.
coyg
The EagLes won’t be caLm……… There’s nothing to be calm about…… They gonna go Heavy metaL on us!……..pray we don’t Lose our ground……but if we go into this game with the Westham mentality, we may just be in for a thrashing of the season
Go crystal palace go!!help us get new signing wenger learns through beating,beat these small,lazy and overrated wenger boys thoroughly,Ignite revolution at arsenal,
Wengahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…… OMG! Hahahahahaha
what?………No rumour?………..hahahahaha……..well, thank God u r awake now……while u were asleep, we have been Linked with even ur grand-dad …..L()L
Crystal Meth Palace’s Hellhurst park will be intimidating and the team will be right in our faces. If there are no men on the field tomorrow (or in the change rooms beforehand) we will get a similar result to the West Ham game.
You loosing at home on the 1st day of the new season to a relative minnow doesn’t strike fear into your future opponents so Crystal Palace will want to add to our misery for sure and will therefore be well up for this. What WH can do we can do! And all that..
I’ve always defended Wenger, but you have to admit that his actions justify the tag ‘specialist in failure ‘.He truly is a specialist in failure
Your name doesn’t imply you’v always defended Wenger (unless you’re his Aunt)
good that spuds have signed Clinton n’jie thought arsenal would make amove for him glad we didn’t hope to see some big signings now
@ Leo
Just read on sky sports transfer page that we have bid $ 45 million for benzama as reported by the star . The question is can we trust the star or not …. Just asking
Lol wenger has always been calm, even after the 1000 match memorial, he was calm, its time to be active and stop being calm.
I have no doubt whatsoever that we will bounce back, thats a given. I am also sure we will enjoy longs spells of rich form during the course the season like we do every season, but that will be just about it, we will end up third or fourth in the log. But if Wenger goes out and get the quality we need in those critical positions, then our odds of winning the EPL would maginally improve. But even at that with Wenger as manager our chances are quite slim.
Seriously, I luv this team so much but i cant bear to have Heart Attack cos of this team. I luv arsenal with all my Heart but its now Arsene Wenger FC, A coach that thinks signing of only cech will get him the EPL. I will just try to enjoy the season cos it isnt enticing anymore for me. Even Man City want otamendi and already made a bid for Pedro, Does this Stingy Wenger av a Heart at all???
My expectations for this season are to avoid relegation and beat the spuds. I won’t fantasize about the pl and cl until wenger leaves our club and someone who actually wants to win is in charge.
I hate the fans who jump on the bandwagon, if giroud scores, there’ll be some fans posting that we don’t need a striker. Stick to what you believe and don’t change because of a loss or win. Just like the posts on this site will be completely different.