ARSENAL CANNOT WIN EVERY GAME by Uche
When the referee blew the final whistle yesterday in our game against Swansea, I was surprisingly calm. It was not because the game meant nothing to me or that I expected us to lose. I guess something in me finally recognizes after all these years that it will be foolhardy for anybody to expect a football team today to go unbeaten all season.
That a team has improved and looks to be finally capable of challenging for a title does not mean that they will not lose a game once in a while. Even the biggest cynics concede that this Arsenal team has improved. We have won games that we would have lost this time last year and we are on course to beat last season’s point total of 73. From the look of things as well, we stand a good chance of retaining the FA cup. (ADMIN COMMENT – Err Uche we actually got 79 last year, but we still would have come Fourth with 73….just!)
When a result like this happens, there are many ways one can look at it. Being angry and irrational is one option. Being disappointed but optimistic is another. I choose the latter and I have my reasons. This team played well yesterday in spite of the opposition’s water tight defense. We did everything but score goals. Make no mistake about it, Swansea did not come to the Emirates to play. Their game plan was not to get beaten. Chelsea had a similar game plan when we played them a few weeks ago and the thing about playing a team that does not want to play is that it makes your job difficult. If Arsenal chooses not to play as well when we face a team like Madrid or Juventus, we too can be hard to break down. So I think that it is important for us to put all of these factors into consideration when reacting to this result. Critics have accused Arsenal fans of going absolutely bonkers when their team loses and they are right. One defeat is all it takes for a few to dig out their ‘Wenger Must Go’ banners and that can be terribly childish and ridiculous sometimes. An Arsenal team that has played some of the most breathless football we have seen in the Premier League with a ten game unbeaten run cannot suddenly be rubbish overnight.
If Real Madrid can lose a game after spending 260 million pounds on Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema and Rodriguez, I will be calm and humble when my Arsenal team loses the occasional game. Swansea got lucky. Period. On a different day, they would have lost that game 4-1 or 3-1. Fair play to them. A goal is a goal. They scored and we didn’t. They have earned their three points after being absolutely battered by Arsenal. So I will take this one on the chin and look forward to the next game. No I will not ridicule Giroud, Ozil or any other Arsenal player for that matter. They do not deserve it and have done enough this season to earn our respect and appreciation. If not that we are trying to be classy as usual, we will be pointing to the one or two well-deserved penalty calls against Swansea as one of the reasons for our defeat. Swansea players shoved and pulled Giroud, Alexis and our other offensive players each time a cross was whipped in from a corner kick. But the referee and the technology at his disposal could not capture that.
But like I said, we will take this one on the chin and accept that however good a team is, sometimes the result of a game just does not reflect their quality and efforts. So on to the next one. Peace.
Uche Edochie
Lagos – Nigeria
I don’t think its merely the fact that we lost, but more the fact that we failed to score at home vs Swansea.
besides we could’ve said this 7 times so far (Calm Down! Arsenal can not win EVERY game!), but u cannot expect to contest to win the league after losing more than 6 games..
Out of those 6 games, 4 we lost in first half of season were just not real Arsenal team we are watching now…. We had injuries to important players and were not completely balanced….
But going into next season… with this complete squad(well nearly complete squad) you do have the confidence that we can compete for the title… Yeah I agree that we have to be consistent the whole season but what we saw in the second half of season was that we have improved from what we had been for last ten years… And also we can have blips but seriously no team can go the season unbeaten… not at least in present scenario…
Lets go into the Man United game with full confidence and show them that having greater history than us doesn’t mean anything and we too can beat them at their home turf… just like we did on Man City
COYG
I dont tink injuries can be an excuse any longer. Which season out of the past 10 have we had an injury-free season? Coping ans managing injuries is part n parcel of the game and we r just not good enuff in that department….
That old chestnut again? Injuries? Give me peace, go back to every game we lost this season in the league and tell me we didn’t have good enough players to at least avoid a loss.
No fan expects to win every game, but take a look at the circumstances….4 games left in the league to nail 2nd (so we do have incentive/pressure on), on a superb unbeaten run, AT HOME, vs 8th place team in the league who came and parked it. It’s one thing to fire blanks and not win, but to lose that is criminal and all to familiar. There’s where the frustration lies.
With a mentality to accept Swansea defeats at home we will never reach more than 4th. It’s time we stop making excuses and start working on what can we do to avoid home defeats to average teams ( no disrespect ! ), We looked like typical Arsenal – fragile, unable to break a solid defense. We should be crushing teams like Swanswea. The Real Madrid reference is again unfair, because if Real don’t win the CL you can bet Ancelottis head will be hanged. When was the last time Wenger faced pressure at Arsenal ? You cannot compare the two clubs, because Real will do whatever it takes in the name of success. Success at Arsenal is the top 4. Once that is done, we stop to care.
@gunner, life is about choices. So you are within your rights to be upset because your team just cannot be perfect over a gruelling 38 game league season. I wonder if some of us here are as perfect in our various professions as we expect this team to be. I am sure there are people here who go a whole year without screwing up at work a few times. Your team lost a game due to bad luck against an ultra defensive team. Get over it. We brought in new players that needed time to gel so yes the first few games of this season were difficult. Our world cup winning German contingent needed time to recuperate too so we were without their services. Throw in a few injury problems to key players as well and we couldn’t have asked for a worse circumstance to start the season with. But hey, let us neglect all that and be mad at every blip because we are not the ones who get on the pitch and play. It will be nice to have a few rational blogs here once in a while.
@Uche Edochie
Yeah I don’t expect us to win every game (not even Barca with MSN) did this season, but like Champagne Charlie said above “AT HOME, vs 8th place team in the league”..its never gonna be enough to win the league next season.
Don’t mean to be brutal, but that’s what it takes to win this 38 Game journey..
Guess u happy with 4th place!!!!
If we get 4 points from the next 3 games we will finish third buddy, no we won’t be happy with fourth, plus we have a cup final to look ahead to,,,calm down. Our season wasn’t that bad after all
In the 15 games we have played in 2015, we have gained a total of 34/45 points, losing 3 and drawing 1. Mathematically speaking, even if we maintained this ‘form’ throughout the 38 game season, we would end up around the 86 point mark, which is just edging around the amount the champions get at the end of the season (ranges typically 86-90). Even the United team that won the title with a mere 80 points only lost 4 games, which highlights how massive every point is in the PL. The problem we have is maintaining said form, and whilst we can’t win every game, we can’t afford to lose games like these, as the margin of error now days is much smaller.
Finally a positive article, I think some fans need to take a chill pill and relax, we lost and shit happens, we have been brilliant before that and we got unlucky. True we list the second spot but we are certain to finish third and that’s not too bad, third and fa cup and I will be a happy Gooner. Coyg
We can not win every game – Agreed
We have improved from last season – Agreed
Do we still have room for improvement ? Absolutely. And we should do it this summer. We are much closer to a title challenging team, but we may never won it if we drop points in a few tight games like this in a season
The game shows that we lack someone with flair upfront to win game for us in tight situation. Alexis did that a number of times in the 1st half of the season, but he alone is not enough. With all respect to Giroud and what he had done for us this season, he is not the type of player who can come up with a moment of magic to win such tight game for us. I think Walcott is even much less a threat when coming on – he is not suitable for playing in games when opponent play with low defensive line and deny space for him to run into
Same for Ospina, I did not bash him for this single game. Personally I think he benefit a lot from the more stable defence and the emergence of a DM specialist as Coquelin. In a few times he was really tested, he did not convince me. He should be a very good number 2 and cup keeper.
We fan may get obsessed with another DM, but since the emergence of Coquelin, I believe it is now the 3rd priority behind a top top number 9 and a proper number 1. Hopefully Wenger and the club can make it right in the summer
If we can’t win every game, it’s time to start cleaning house.
Time to go make some $ale$!
Admin – Can we get these adverts that keeping popping up over the screen removed. There getting pretty annoying
U could have a Virus dude, used to happen to my PC, before installed new anti-virus..
It’s not a virus, it happen when my mouse goes over the advert and then it enlarges… atm its a lacoste advert
If you cant win it, DONT loose. This is how we became the invincibles.
A draw would be more acceptable especially playing at home. So many “small teams” have picked up 3 points at the Emirates which is unacceptable, if it happens once or twice yes it can be considered as shocks but if it continuously happens then the coaching staff and the players need to be put in check.
OT: Happy 24th birthday to Le Coq!!! May he continue to tackle hard, be aggressive, passionate and a brick wall we’ve been crying for in midfield.
We could have played 7 days and still not scored, so many decent chances lost. But hey it’s only a bad day at the office and we need 4 points or a win at United to ensure we avoid ECL play offs. Beat united, win the cup and you can mark me as happy for the season.
I did realise we are a bit thin on the ground in the CF position, I would not mind a player like Lukaku to alternate with Giroud.
Why not have Podolski instead…. he does have lethal partnership with Giroud and better shooting accuracy with eye for a goal ?? Plus he won’t cost much
“That a team has improved and looks to be finally capable of challenging for a title does not mean that they will not lose a game once in a while. Even the biggest cynics concede that this Arsenal team has improved. We have won games that we would have lost this time last year and we are on course to beat last season’s point total of 73. From the look of things as well, we stand a good chance of retaining the FA cup.”
I’ve been relieved to see the team go on such an extended winning streak. I expected us to lose one of our last 4 games because this cynic can slip off his tongue a catelogue of occasions we shoot ourselves in the foot in the last last stage.
We can still get the Wenger Trophy by losing to ManYOO which is why I pointed out the part quoted above. I just feel you’re wrong. Most Arsenal fans will be pessimistic about our chances to finish even 3rd, let alone 2nd because there is still the rest of the leg to blow off over 3 games.
As soon as Wenger started to think he was a tactician and able to make a sensible substitution, I felt our one point against Swansea was now zero points – and I hate being able to predict this well because it means there is a pattern or theme going on here being unaddressed.
I am glad we’re in the Champions League qualifying round at the very least. I had a bet with a Chelsea fan we will finish 1st or 2nd this season. Before the Swansea game, well straight after we beat Hull he offered to pay me early and I dismissed that, telling him we’ll shoot ourselves in the foot before the end of the season.
At least Ospina didn’t run into a defender or do a Mad Jens like in 2006, Paris.
“We stand a good chance of retaining the FA Cup” …. There is a second foot to shoot, probably with Szczesny being picked over Ospina. However in 2002 Wright was keeper in every round of the FA Cup and Wenger picked Seaman for the Final – the flip side of this coin is in ’98 Manninger had played every round of the FA Cup and was also kept in goal in the Final. I want Ospina in goal in the final. I feel Szczesny is trying to force a move and might use the Final to make a point like Overmars did in the UEFA Cup Final before he was sold. (New fans will need to go watch that game to see Overmars look over to Wenger’s technical area before missing that sitter).
we can not keep on winning all games but why loose important games?we needed that win!!
Chelsea only lost 2 games
Chelsea did not drop a game
against direct rivals City
Arsenal Utd or Liverpool.
Yet they have only collected 70 goals
with 2 games to go the lowest tally in years.
I appreciate that but its not good to lose home games, especially not scoring in a home game
Does anybody know our Home record? How many draws and loses we have. I’d also like to know Chelsea’s so that I can get a rough idea of what a PL champion home record is
Swansea beat man utd home and away and they did same to us .next season we must take them seriously and meet should have marked gomis period
A loser wrote this article, despicable.
You must take yourself very seriously when you throw adjectives such as “despicable” around after we lose a game of football.
It is a blip. Since the Monaco game it’s been our only blip…but we shouldn’t have lost. That’s what’s annoying. It turned a blip into a real loss. VERY Frustrated. Hopefully this is the one off awful game. I really hope so.
simple point: if runners up plus fa cup was enough to close the discussion on wenger sticking around…fine i could live with that…doesnt it follows that 4th place and no fa cup would be enough to force him out…qed…that leaves 3rd place with or without cup and 4th pace with cup to debate whether he deserves to stay on or not…3rd place with a cup would be enough for me (just) the other two and he should do the decent thing and resign
Nobody is saying that, its just the way we have lost it is causing that bitter pain…..!!!
Totally agree with the writer.
It’s a massive overreaction to a very unlucky defeat on the back of an extended period of great performances.
In most respects we have clearly improved with better results against most of the top teams, the tactics have become more varied, the squad has again improved. It’s not finished but we are getting there and yes sometimes we screw up but we’re not alone. City have been beaten by Palace, Burnley and Newcastle all in the bottom half of the table and Middlesborough, Utd by Everton, West Brom (bottom half) and both Milton Keynes and Leicester and Chelsea were dumped out of the fa cup by Bradford City. Even Real Madrid have lost to Real Sociedad who languish in 12th in la Liga. We’ve not been beaten by anyone below 9th in the pl and as I say improved in our results versus the top teams.
We are moving in the right direction and whilst not accepting defeat easily is good and to be disappointed normal, some of the comments and perceptions are way off the mark.