Did this weekend kill Arsenal’s Premier League season?

Going into this weekend, even though Arsenal fans knew the team were likely to struggle away to the in form and unbeaten Man City, there was a more positive feel about the current Premier League campaign. But it seems as though everything that could go wrong for the Gunners this weekend did go wrong and so now things are looking pretty bleak.

Despite our poor away record and awful start to the season Arsenal had taken advantage in slips by our EPL rivals to go above Liverpool and level on points with Chelsea, while we sat just one point behind our north London rivals Tottenham.

There was pressure on Chelsea after their Champions League disaster in midweek and on Liverpool because of their defending and their recent results and there was a chance that Spurs would be jaded after their own European exploits against Real Madrid.

The spuds were so lucky today, though, being outplayed by Crystal Palace who spurned a hatful of chances and then conceded the only goal of the game. Liverpool had it easy and filled their boots a West Ham who defended like a non-league team and Chelsea got the benefit of facing a very poor Man United, while we played well and got beat.

All of this means that Arsenal have now dropped to sixth because of Liverpool’s goal difference and we are playing catch up with Tottenham up next. No pressure then! Fail to win the north London derby or god forbid lose it and we are already in big trouble before the halfway stage.

Has this weekend killed off any hope of a successful league season for Arsenal? Can we bounce back?

Bob.

17 Comments

  1. It probably sounds negative but our season was in trouble before it began. Last season (and many seasons before that) made it clear that this organization needed a change from top to bottom.

    Nothing changed, Wenger extended his contract and that was the beginning of the end of this season.

    I have said since before the season that 4th place is the best we can hope for and even 4th is unlikely.

    I know this opinion was echoed by many Arsenal fans.

    Wenger lost it years ago and at his age, he is not going to rediscover himself or change.

    I expect 5th or 6th and would be impressed and delighted with 4th.

  2. We were never in for anything right from the start. The board are never serious about anything so there is seriously nothing to speak about.

    The board couldn’t even define what is their target for the team for a start.

  3. Man City is nowhere near perfect football yet, like Barca under Pep. But it seems enough to rule the league. We could see the empty spaces at their defend, but we were too bad and clueless to expose it. Honestly, I feel like I want to end this season right here. Like I see the sumps up of our season. Don’t mind about the trophy, Arsenal are loosing the elementary of beautiful football. We are going down the class and we deserve that Friday night football, every bit of it. If this available, I want to push that skip button and replace Arsene and the whole team, and start it from the scratch.

  4. All promised of attacking City evaporated when I saw the team sheet.

    It’s AW and his cowardly 4-5-1 formation again

  5. Well ! if the City came didn`t put an end to Arsenal`s ambitions the Spurs game (yet to come) certainly will.

  6. Probably.Since 2015,according to the BCC ,Wenger has just won once against the big 6,drawn 7 and lost 10.The goal difference makes for dismal reading.
    I’m afraid Wenger has lost the plot. You cant be losing to the same team again,again x times .
    This shows the other teams have the measure of him and that’s why he will continue to lose
    the big games until the US boss gets tired of him.
    The next game against Spurs after the ib will give him a chance to redeem himself.All
    teams,MC included ,aint unbeatable.

    1. …aint unbeatable, but even if we draw against them, we will fall very soon again. 🙁
      Wenger didn’t lost anything… he is cozy as an Arsenal manager, backed by the Board and naive fans. They will prolong the status quo until we finished 10th next season, and then they will find another Wenger, but not a Wenger from Invicibles era but one who will have Ramsey as a captain, and Ozil, Sanchez, Lacazette, Wilshere, Bellerin, Iwobi, Ospina long gone.

  7. These days, I have been divided into two sides in me: the one that keeps watching the game on TV no matter what and wishes somthing great would happen, and the other one that doesn’t care any more.

    I actually thought many of our players did their best, notably Ramsey and Coquelin. I liked them much, much better than Ozil and Xhaka, who did offer practically nothing to the game of such importance. Overall, however, our performance was not convincing enough, maybe, we played too respectfully against “too strong City”.

    The thing is our squad is far inferior to that of City; no matter how hard our player fight, they can not become what they are not. And this is down to our manager. He signs, trains and instructs the players. He builds the whole club just to be an average, midtable club. What a great fall this is from the Invincibles years.

    All my negativity comes from what Arsenal used to be under the same manager. I am negative because I want to see our club improve, not fall down. Some might be happy with 5, or 6th in the league and not bad results in Europe League, but I am not.

    I am not particularly a fan of Pep, but I respect his desire, which was quite obvious from his face and action on the sideline. All I saw in Wenger was moaning and complaining against referees.

    I have said this a couple of times, but unless Wenger is gone, the change and improvemnt Arsenal deserve are not coming.

    1. “…many of our players did their best!”
      Jesus, you are right, but very wrong at the same time… they are limited players and if Ramsey is not from GB he would be long gone! For me he is a Wenger’s simbol of everthing wrong at Arsenal. Wenger didn’t want to resigned Fabregas just to have a cozy place for Ramsey in the starting 11. Crazy!!!

  8. I know nothing about nature but I think as one gets old he/she becomes simpler but reverse is the case for Arsene,as he is getting old he becomes more and more stubborn. When will this man leave Arsenal alone,It’s glaring you can’t win anything major again but he won’t listen,his heart is as hard as a stone.TERRIBLE!!!

  9. Wenger has not changed a bit. He still thinks he is the real deal esp after the unbeaten season. Guardiola is showing us what the modern manager is made of; ambition, tactics and adaptability. Guardiola NEVER liked playing on the counter while at barca and bayern. But look now, he has created a team that can possess and that can break on you in the batting of the eye lid. Wenger STILL DOESNT believe in playing on the counter. He is just a lazy old and clueless donkey that still believes he runs the world. Guardiola brings out the best in his players (John stones, Otamendi, Sterling and Delph are not the same players that played under Pellegrini). Wenger destroys players on the other hand (sanchez, ozil, walcott, arshavin, podolski, lucas perez, and now he is making his mark on Lacazzatte). Men that goal must have shown wenger how clueless/naive/stupid/inept he is.
    What a joke of a manager, and arsenal will continue to be the laughing stock until this manager retires MARK MY WORDS gooners

    1. By now, Wenger’s “I know it all” behaviour should not surprise anyone. He is the only Manager who would buy a player and keep him on the bench. We are all witnesses to how he almost destroyed Lucas Perez confidence and playing career. He frustrated life out of Lukas Podolsik and he is about doing the same to Lacazette. A top striker who Wenger will always substitute at every 65 minutes to give playing time to his pet striker, Giroud who went on a 14 games barren run two seasons ago.
      Which manager would bench his top striker to accommodate Ramsey who has turned himself into a striker rather than maintain his central midfield role.? Which coach would substitute Iwobi who was a torn in the flesh of Mancity defence for a donkey Giroud who did not take a single shot at goal or made any meaningful contribution to play.
      Wenger is a survivalist . He sold Gabriel to balance his books and convince the owners he made money on transfers. Gabriel is now doing well at Valencia. His new club is yet to lose a match this season and has a four points advantage over Real Madrid. The boy is now playing regularly.
      Wenger is the problem of Arsenal, and until he leaves I do not see any progressive future for the club. We have lost four games out of ten already and some fans are still dreaming of winning the premier league title! What a wishful thinking!!!

  10. Was there a more “positive” feel going into the game? The season ended the moment Wenger renewed!

  11. Depends on what your expectation was to begin with. As many have said here 4th is the best case scenario. 5th, 6th is realistic.

  12. The fault for this lies just with the manager he is making many mistakes and consequently allowing the opposition an easy ride.
    It has been a long time since I saw Arsenal play well from the first minute to the last – this is surely down to a crisis of confidence among the squad. Arsenal’s problems are mostly mental, not technical.

    “Motivation is a major problem for several of Arsenal’s players – it’s clear that they aren’t always giving 100% out there. When the chips are down, several of them keep going missing. Sometimes talent wins you games, but sometimes spirit is also vital.”
    ‘Some of them do not seem to know what it means to wear that Arsenal shirt. ‘If Arsenal are to achieve anything this season, then the motivation must come back into the team – and Wenger is responsible for that.

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