With Arsenal putting five past Burnley without reply last weekend, there is no real need for us to get anything out of the two remaining Premier League games, in terms of league position anyway. However, just for the sake of ending the season with something for the fans to smile about and giving the departing manager Arsene Wenger a decent send-off, I think the players will be keen to perform well over the next few days.
In fact I think it could be a quite important couple of matches, because it gives us a chance to say goodbye to what has become an embarrassingly poor record on the road. It has been a rancid run for Arsenal in 2018, let’s be frank. Not only have we failed to pick up a single Premier League point since the new year began, we were knocked out of the League Cup by Championship strugglers Nottingham Forest.
That away run includes defeats to sides like Brighton, Bournemouth and Swansea City. Okay the new season will be a fresh start under a new manager but do we really want to go into it with such an appaling away record hanging over the players? Of course not.
Thankfully I think the situation now is right for the Gunners to show what they can do away from home, starting with Leicester tomorrow and then at Huddersfield on Sunday. Surely Arsenal will get at least a point from these two games won’t we? What are the chances of two morale boosting away wins do you think?
Bob.
Anything we get now from 2 remaining games is a luxury we’ve already finished 6th so all is left is to put that shocking away record to bed, whether we will is another thing! Like us Leicester have nothing to play for but they might raise they’re game tomorrow as they haven’t won in 5 games! Depending on what team we put out it could go either way.. I’m going for 2-1 Arsenal and Aubameyang to get on the scoresheet
It doesn’t really matter now. New manager, new philosophy and this season will soon be forgotten. Yes it would be nice for us to win both games, but it doesn’t matter in the long run.
Doesn’t matter. They are meaningless. We are getting a new manager and we wont finish in the top 4 even if we win both matches
What matters is:
1. Who the next manager is and how quickly he is signed (he needs enough time to sign players)
2. How much freedom and funds he gets
3. Who he signs and who he sells
4. The formation and starting lineup he creates
5. A good Start to next season
A couple of wins in pointless
end of season kick about’s
is ushering in the usual
summer optimism/delusion.
“A couple of decent signings and we will challenge for the league”
Been told that for more than a decade.
Arsenal’s PL was over in November.
The Europa run against tier 5 teams camouflaged
Arsenal’s hopeless plight for 6 months.
Better the season finished last Sunday.
Wenger’s leaving and the new manager
search has now superseded
the 6th place disaster of a season.
Play the young players.
Macey
Chambers Mavropanos Holding Bola
Niles Nelson Willock
Lacazette Nketiah Iwobi.
?would still like to finish season on a good note, as a lead into next season.
Best wishes to Koscielny for a speedy recovery from the operation on his Achilles rupture.
Ozil please find your spine before the new manager arrives.
?
Barryglik i agree on playing the youngsters who actually have proved they are first team ready like Mavropanos, AMN and Chambers if you class him as a youngster but the others are far off the first team. I hear positive things all the time about Nelson but whenever he plays he looks like a 12 year old boy against men. The back up keepers are useless and are only there to make up the numbers. I would start the big 3 just because they still havent fully gelled Abameyang Lacazette and Mki. Futhermore seeing them three rip teams apart sort of helps me forgot how awful this season has been.
I expect us to get over our away day blues, we don’t need the points, we don’t need the confidence. Everyone will be in high spirits thinking about the summer tournament and then a couple of weeks abroad. The icy cold rainy afternoon is gone, they’ll be playing in the sun. I expect us to enjoy these games and I reckon our strikers will give further proof to their finishing finesse. Mkhitaryan Aubameyang, Lacazette, watch this space.
well when you have Auba and Laca esp Auba….
you know you will get fox in the box finishing….
all they need is good services…good creativity….and they do the rest…..goals…
The new manager has inherited world class firepower…but weak defense…
Sorry but I am a true supporter so the result does matter to me. No game is meaningless, a win is a win. Trouble with the new snowflake generation of so called supporters is that they do not really understand the tribal nature of it. Work banter, pub banter, bragging rights. I sang my head off on the North Bank on the 60s when we were crap and I do it now. I want to win every game!
Too right GB… if Arsenal are playing, to me it isn’t meaningless.. just like you I want to win every game, even if it’s a pre-season friendly!
I hope we win tonight… don’t like Vardy (cocky git)
Plus I hope finally we get some away points!!!!
COYG
how things would have changed if Vardy had joined us last season instead…and Bfg and gabriel did not get injured before the season start….we may not sign mustafic and perez
I didn’t want Vardy
Totally agree. If ANY game is meaningless to you, you have to consider whether or not you are a TRUE SUPPORTER.
Jon Fox,
Is this the same Jon Fox who wanted and predicted Atletico Madrid to beat us 8-0?
Who wanted us to lose very single game in order that a manager would get the sack?
Now I don’t want to bring back old hostilities Jon, but there are some on here who have good memories, even at the age of 73!
So please don’t start lecturing others about being TRUE SUPPORTERS, especially when you give examples proving your not!!!
GB, now you sir is what an Arsenal fan should be about. Evvery single game, if it’s the Emirates cup or the community shield, the desire to be top dog is at the core of being a true gooner.
I can never ever envisage a day when I would want my club to lose a game and the day I do, then that’s when I know I should give my season ticket to a more worthy suppporter.
Ken, I knew you would bring up some of my posts BUT you clearly do not know the difference between wanting the team to lose for the GREATER GOOD of the club being rid of WENGER on the one hand and wanting the team to win but content that nothing fundamental should be done to correct the constant (years long) fault lines in the team. How could YOU ever understand! Originally , and not that long ago, you were still saying those wise fans who have helped the club by getting rid of him (I refer to the thousands who stayed away, causing empty seats) were not supporting the team. There is a clear difference, which most of us easily recognise, between supporting Arsenal Football Club as fans do and supporting a team and manager going backwards. That reason for cleansing the club has now happened. And I for one am not longer bitter. No need, for my side, which is the huge majority of fans won our years long battle. Once you saw for certain the way things were going you then and rather late in the day became a reluctant convert to the majority cause, while still condemning those who took action and fearlessly stated their case. So no lectures please KEN , AS THEY WOULD BE HOLLOW ONES, coming from you! You know full well that I am a lifelong fan since boyhood 60 years ago and further insults(saying I am not a true fan , which is not worthy of a person of your intellect) , which I had hoped you would have ditched, can now only be caused by bitterness. Rather sad, I feel. PERHAPS, AFTER ALL, WE SHOULD AVOID FURTHER CONVERSATION ON HERE, AS CLEARLY OLD WOUNDS HAVE NOT HEALED. Finally , what my actual words said – and you are usually very precise when quoting others- is “if any game is meaningless……. .” If you are going to lecture me , please do me the honour of lecturing me on PRECISELY what I said, since like you, I pick my words and phrases with care. I can truthfully say that since age 8, all Arsenal first team games have been meaningful to me.
Jon Fox,
I am not challenging your validity as an Arsenal supporter and, I might add, never would. I really enjoyed your list of Legends and, in the words of GB, wondered how many “snowflakes” would recognise them?
It was your previous posts that pricked a memory for me and I have now asked you about it.
What I am asking you about is your way of putting other people and their views down.
Heaven knows I’ve had enough of that from you in the past.
As GB clearly stated no one should ever want their CLUB to lose a game, no matter what the reason. That’s because no Arsenal game is ever meaningless is it?
That is why I mentioned the Atletico game. That was certainly not “meaningless” was it, probably THE most important two games of the season. But you stated that you wanted them to lose 8-0!! I cannot get the connection, Jon, between the two. Please enlighten me as to how your thoughts benefitted the CLUB?
GB you and I have stood on the terraces at Highbury during the 50s and 60s watching complete dross, but we still supported the CLUB.
That is the point, it wasn’t Wenger or the team, it was the CLUB.
There was never the hatred towards Billy Wright (as an example) when he was taking the CLUB to near extinction, yet here you were wishing the most successful manager ever at Arsenal the most horrible things ever!
That is your right, but if you make that claim then you must be prepared to be challenged surely?
You decided to give up your season ticket and that was your perfect right to do so.
Others might want to wish that Arsenal lose a game for whatever reason and that is their right also.
But what we surely can’t do is start lecturing others about how wrong they are, when one has done that exact same thing!!
Now the post we are talking about mentions tribal, pub, bragging rights etc and that is at the heart of supporting a CLUB.
Yes, I will always be an Arsene fan because I RESPECT the man for what he has done for the CLUB i have never hidden that and I see no shame in admitting it.
That has always been my stance, despite acknowledging that the last two years have been a disaster.
That is why I am so pleased that he acknowledged, along with the board, (despite a further year on his contract) it was time to go.The reaction from the crowd of 50,000 plus gooners was brilliant and showed just what the man meant to the CLUB.
I will certainly follow his career path with interest and wait to see what comes out of his promised autobiography.
He has now gone…time to move on…complete support for the new manager and CLUB, even if it’s Arteta or Brenda.
I would never be presumptious enough to lecture anybody on this forum as we are ALL gooner fans and most with a lot more knowledge of our CLUB and the game than I have.
But it seems that is precisley what you do and when challenged become very belligerent and defensive.
I have been called many things on this site with you being my main protagonist. But, because I believe in my views, will always answer any challenges or questions from other gooners who differ from me.
I include you in this, because I will certainly query anyone’s post as this is my right and of course they and you can do likewise.
Now off to follow our game, hope we thrash them and give our new manager a good basis for taking our CLUB forward.
Easy answer to your question. Pre his sacking I was desperate to get him out(in common with the vast majority of us) as he was directly harming our club. To me it is club first , team second when something is harming the club. The club is always, has always and always will be FAR more important than ANY team. Teams change constantly, the club itself stays the same (though not those in charge) I see no difficulty at all in grasping this concept and nor do many who wanted us to lose to force him out. Once he was sacked(as all realists know he was, despite the deception, to save face), then and only then we again wanted the team to win. EASY PEASY TO MANY OF US BUT CLEARLY NOT TO YOU. AH WELL, c’est la vie!
Admin,
Any idea why my reply to Jon Fox has not appeared?
Why not repeat it on a newer thread KEN. I am also keen to read it.
Jon Fox,
Will reply in full as I always do, but am really interested why the reply has not been printed.
No foul language etc. so let’s just wait for the explanation first.
You might be surprised with the contents and the explanation within.
At first I thought you forgot to post it as I had nothing outstanding to moderate. But then looked in BIN and there it was. If you know the rules mate there is no personal abuse or sweating allowed. And the swearwords are filtered out and put straight into bin.
You used “pricked” in your comment lol….
Admin,
How did you know I was “sweating”?
Understand the reasoning now and why you have to be so careful.
Will be more observant in the future.
Ken, You might wish to try again, with IF necessary(which would surprise me) minor rephrasing. I am surprised at Admins comment to you but of course can, as yet, only speculate what was said. You will know better than me when this particular thread will either stay or disappear.
John let me explain clearly what happened to Ken’s comment. I have a spam and swear filter which lists all dodgy words you wouldn’t want kids to read and one of those words is “prick”. When Ken wrote that something “pricked” him it was automatically filtered. Hence it disappeared until I looked for it….
Clear now?
Westbrom relegated, Huddersfield held their own against city they face arsenal and Chelsea in the remaining games now they are dragged into this relegation battle. I really hate Swansea a boggey team for us,I wish we spare Huddersfield let us not kill their dreams.I want Swansea down I hope we draw against Swansea. Dilly dang dilly dong Ranieri to spuds lol
draw against *Huddersfield
Winning the last home game in the beautiful stadium he built was the most important.The party is over Wenger can now leave
On the last game of the season, I will have a Wenger tattoo on my upper arm,for remembrance #merci arsene
What about a tattoo of Arteta’s hair on your other arm? ?
haha only if Guzidis gives him the job and he wins titles for us
Nice one Counsel! Think you’ve got your way out of that ?
ppl like u r increasimg day by day.God help us apoclypse is near.
Yep
Arsenal director Ken Friar must be a liar when he has to sit down explain to Wenger how much funds is available….
Thought fans always say that Wenger control the funds?
?
Well Hafiz, Wenger did spend + 100 millions on:
Mustafi
Xhaka
Welbeck
Perez
Not one of them have really made an impact..
Also he spent £56 millions on Auba, £47 millions on Lacazette and refused £60 millions for Sanchez.
So money CLEARLY isn’t a problem. We may not compete with City financially, but the price tag of players like Salah, are clearly within our budget.
OT, RUMOUR MILL: 22M for leno is a steal, I pray it’s true but I’ve been disappointed before but honestly if that’s our first signing post Arsene, then I’m all for the 3-man management system arsenal are trying to implement. 3 credible footballing brains arguing about how the team should operate can only be good for the team IMO. Everyone else at Arsenal was either non existent, silent or just didn’t care enough to object Arsene. silinstat, selahi and Buvac are much better than the idea of Rodgers, Arteta or even Viera thinking they can take the club further.
Leno, a good CB or two and a midfielder. And we should be able to pip Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool for 3rd/4th. Ideally if some young players break through we could challenge the Manchester clubs in a few seasons. Exciting times nonetheless