Of course I and every other Arsenal fan would have liked to see our team play brilliantly in this third game of our pre-season and do to Chelsea what we did just less than two months ago at Wembley when we outplayed them and beat them to the FA cup trophy.
That certainly was not what happened in the heat and humidity of Shanghai but just because the Gunners were deservedly beaten by the reigning EPL champions it is not necessarily a reason to panic or write off our title hopes before a ball has been kicked in anger.
As long as Arsene Wenger and the players learn their lessons from this and use it as a wake-up call then it might actually turn into a positive. That is what happened with Chelsea and Antonio Conte last season, as they see the overwhelming defeat to us at the Emirates as the turning point of their title winning campaign.
To be honest I think we needed this because after beating our regular tormentors Bayern Munich in a penalty shoot-out on Wednesday there seemed to be too much delight and confidence which did not reflect our performance. Arsenal were also out played by the Germans but we rode our luck and that may have seen us start the new season with false hope and confidence.
As it is the need for hard work and improvement is now crystal clear so could this heavy defeat to Chelsea have been just the kick up the bum that Arsenal needed?
Sam P.
Arsenal finishing 5th was the wake up call we needed.
And Wenger had said in the pre-match interview that against Chelsea there is nothing like a friendly. One would not expect such a resounding defeat after such a statement from the coach.
Am not yet convinced this coming season will be different from what we have seen before in the past decade.
Don’t forget they also had a perfectly good goal disallowed for being off-side.
Deary me.. looking at all the negative comments here I wonder of anyone understands pre-season at all… !!
Did us beating a full strength Bayern mean we are suddenly one of the best in Europe? Of course not but even then I didnt see many of you doing any comments after that match !!
This period is purely to get match fitness and to use proper matches rather than training ground for new players to understand the system as well as giving Arsene a chance to see which of the youngatefs might be able to cut it and also to see which of the 1st team squad might be able to cover other positions (or not as the case seems to be with Elneny!)
If you all seriously think Arsene will start PL with Per Maitland-Niles and Elneny as a back 3 then you should really go support another team as its clear your only thought is to be completely negative about anything the team does !
I believe from next week all the players are due back for training including Sanchez so for Emirates Cup we will see more of the line up.
The following week at Charity Shield will see a completely different team to the one that played against a more or less full strength Chelsea team !
Can only give 1 thumb up dont see why your getting some downs i agree 100% with ya.
The reason there is pre-season, besides for marketing reasons, is to see where the team is at, see what is required, introduce tactics and to get the players integrated into the team. It is certainly not to try players in new positions or or just get them fit and running because you can do that i training. You are actually playing against real teams which is not what you can get that in training, hence a pre-season has as much importance and is an indicator of how the opening season could unfold. Judging by the results I have to honestly say we are clearly not ready. Not ready!
there’s just one problem: Arsenal have a bad history! When the doomsayers come with all the negative predictions, we can laugh in response all we like, but they’re always right in the end! Bayern can lose 4-0 and there’s no problem, but Arsenal? Unfortunately whether the negatives point to doom for us, history shows it’s always right! And yet we make all the excuses and never learn from them!
Yes, you are absolutely right, but I am afraid Mr Wenger is ‘too old’ to change his ways. He may be able replace a couple of players who are leaving this Summer, in my mind he is not the right person to identify the weaknesses in the team. Certainly there are structural weaknesses that he has not identified. For example, a solid defensive midfielder (like Carvalho) – Xhaka is just not skilled for that role. The team additionally needs somebody who is consistently very good at making crosses (Walcott or Belerin or Oxlade-chamberlain aren’t) and deadly in taking freekicks – like Mahrez – (nobody in the team can do that at the moment)
If Alexis leaves which I think he will, we need a world class replacement also. Sadly Mr Wenger sees the game in a very distorted way than the most managers would. I doubt if he will correct these deficiencies, so problems will remain.
Spot on peter bt i would prefer jorginho or Geoffrey kondogbia to william carvalho as our dm. William is quite good bt lacks pace
Arsene Wenger would never learn…lots of teams have strengthened, yet he feels the team is now able to compete for the title…I see another season in disaster…
So at this point, where all we know is Lacacette’s and Kolasnic are in and Willock and Sczezney are out, you don’t think we’ve strengthened? Okay.
Strengthening is relative, you can do little and still call it strengthening. All that we’ve accomplished really is plugging holes that has been left gaping for years so in reality we are actually catching up not strengthening. Furthermore according to your logic Lacazette and Kolasinic are replacements for Wilock and Sczezney, who don’t even play in the same position, and Wilock is not even first team…. strange logic.
Arsenal will always remain the same under Wenger, what do you expect from a team full of average players, in fact this squad is overachieving
Xhaka is average it will be difficult to get rid of him know I don’t expect much from him anyway, welbeck useless, Elneny poor poor he is just passer of the ball nothing much,Ramsey inconsistent not good enough, Iwobi is average and that remains the case,welbeck is a marathon runner no end product take him to beijing conclusion Arsenal is not up to the challenge,big squad. but mostly mediocre, I thought we were to rebuild!!!!!!
Despite some of our players being good to average, my main gripe with our team is that Wenger doesn’t set them up to get the best out the sum total of the parts. Having an average team is nothing new (you ask managers of 3/4 of the premier league). However, getting the best out of a team is an art in professional coaching and management. This is where I feel we are perennially failing.
seriously, we are all just here comforting ourselves ahead of the season. same story every year. starts by dropping points on the first game and end up being 10 points behind by the end of November with the #wengerout banner coming out just before alexis goes on a free to psg…I mean I can see this all the way from Africa. we are never making the next step, at this rate we barely playing catch up. chelshit won the league and already got in more players than us..even Everton are doing the business..while we fans are here hating on a brother@ alexis who is only running away for his dear life…Pls for your sanity sake don’t have any expectation cause u liable to run madt…
from yesterday game I understood why the big teams went for the tall physical striker,Lacazette I really doubt he will thrive well in epl he looked hopeless yesterday
You see why Giroud is so important? The ideal striker for Arsenal is Lewandowski or Cavani. Two tall, physical and pacy forwards. Lacazette will only thrive in a two man attack.
Giroud is certainly not as mobile as those two you mentioned!
I think we need wide players that can peg back the opposition full backs then you will see Lacazette thrive
Wenger is actually useless. The other teams have stepped up there upgrading. We look really useless. All the players we need are out there and now can’t really be ready for the season. What a mess. I can guarantee that about 10.30pm on transfer deadline day we will but panic buys. What a wally Wenger is.
The way we got beaten yesterday was embarrassing, it wasn’t even nearly good enough, wenger will prob say ‘it was just a friendly and doesn’t really matter’ and ‘it was a chance to try something different with some youth players’ and to an extent he is right but none of the players in an Arsenal shirt were good enough and we looked very weak and if we play anything close to that in the prem, even against a bottom half team we will probably lose. All that being said it was probably still the best result as is shows how much work still needs to be done, yes we need at least 2 more quality players we all know this but the players themselves have to step it up a gear, I just hope wenger doesn’t take too much longer to get the last couple ot players in or we might not have much left to choose from
Very worrying performances this week – seem to be back to the pre-back 3 disorganized way of playing. Some of the careless play giving the ball away (inexcusable) , two players going for the same ball, little sign of a system of play and no inventive or stylish play. Some of the young ones got a wake up call and looked out of their depth. I hope it has been a positive for them and not demoralizing.
Does not seem like there are many players to come back either and if Alexis saw the performances one can only imagine his will to get the hell out.
Pretty worried at the moment.
I am very nervous if this is supposed to be the new
We have got enough wakeup call in last 3 seasons , it is just that Wenger is in deep sleep
It was needed, but the problem is that Wenger rarely learns from his mistakes. I am not going to jump all over him for the loss, because the players looked shattered! Only six weeks ago I did the same thing, England/Australia/China, and it’s knackering, let alone playing football as well. Silly decision to go to China, and it was purely a financial one.
The only worry though is that we looked great against two awful teams, but as usual, very poor against quality opposition. We need at least two more quality signings, possibly three, but will Wenger FINALLY be prepared for the start of a season?
Actually I did play football in Australia the day after I landed…big mistake! Haha
city have signed danilo
Good for City 250m spent
Based on Spending they should win the title then ?
or
should we just withdraw from the league ?
If pep can’t win the league with the talented squad he has acquired then he should be charged and jailed for economics’s crime
Sam P wasn’t the whole of last season a wake up call WTF ??
Wenger basically has the same team he had last season. I see no light at the end of the tunnel until he goes. Transfers still arduous and slow while our rivals leaving us behind in this transfer window.
Two pre-season games, both Munich & Chelsea have ripped us a new one. Sorry nothing has changed, Wenger not the man to take ur forward
Arsenal’s frailties and our lack of title winning players were laid bare yesterday . We seem to have lost our beautiful flowing football , the creativity to unlock the most stubborn defences has deserted us . We need a commanding centre back like Virgil Van Dyk , Kostas Manolas or even Sahko from Liverpool ( he is far better than Gabriel , Chambers , Mertesacker and Mustafi ) . In central midfield lies our greatest problem , the combinations of Ramsey , Xhaka , Coquelin and Elneny do not have the creativity to spark the attack from deep midfield . They are also not strong enough or intelligent enough to protect the defence . If the news of a 70million pound bid from PSG are true I would give them 30million in exchange for Verratti and Lucas Mora. Lucas can fill the void left by Sanchez as well as help Ozil to create attacks whilst Verratti would be the ideal central midfielder to fill the void in the absence of Carzola .
Should Sanchez leave Wenger should make a move for Martial. The attention is not on him but he’s a far better option for the left wing than Lemar. He’s lost his place in the French squad because of lack of game time at Manchester United and may miss the world cup if his situation doesn’t change. At United he’s unlikely to change that with Lukaku and possibly Perisic arriving. Mourinho doesn’t trust him and he would be willing to come if we show him that we really want him. Again he’s got 2 years left on his contract and by next summer would only have a year left. This means he would not command big fee for United next year unless he extends his contract, which he wouldn’t do if he doesn’t get enough game time next season.
Martial is a good dribbler, has pace in abundance, close ball control and can shoot. At Arsenal he would further improve and become deadly. Need I say he’s just 21?