Don’t expect an easy win folks! by DN
We know how desperately annoying it was for Liverpool to score an equalizer in the dying minutes at Anfield, especially as the win would have moved us even further ahead of Man City in the title race. But the fact is that we didn’t win, and when that is added to the 4-0 defeat at Southampton in our previous away game this year, means that we have conceded a massive 7 goals in our last two matches away from the Emirates. Going further, in our last 5 away league games we have only beaten Aston Villa!
Wenger doesn’t want to make too much of the fact that we have slipped up recently, and said: “There are periods in the season… overall 90 per cent of the time we are very solid defensively, but on these two occasions [Southampton and Liverpool] we certainly looked vulnerable defensively,”
“There does not look to be a special reason. At Southampton we looked a bit jaded after the Man City game, at Liverpool maybe we lacked a little bit of calmness and when we played against Benteke we should have moved out of the box because it is difficult to win a header on a long ball against him. Little details we have to work on and improve.
“My regret [from the Liverpool game] comes from the fact that at 3-2 we had two or three good opportunities to kill them off that we didn’t take.”
“Overall for me personally it is a positive team performance. What is most important is that we looked like a real team who is up for the fight,”
“Above the result, what is more important is that we have shown that we are a real team and we are ready in every single game to fight for a positive result.”
Arsenal are definitely favourites and even more so if Alexis Sanchez returns to the side, but I am just warning Arsenal fans not to be too complacent about an away game at our bogey team!
Darren
inotherwords!!
“One does not simply walk past the Orcs into Mordor”
Hehe..
Sadly the orcs also have a little style about them now too. This is a tough fixture, and Huges has shown what a good manager he is to get Stoke to keep performing at a good level each year. I do fancy our chances if Wenger plays a good team though. We don’t get shoved around quite so easily nowadays as both Giroud and Campbell showed in the last Liverpool game.
Best striker in the Premier League
this season?
Olivier Giroud has been proving critics wrong
this season (Picture: Getty Images)
SPONSORED
More trending stories »
WHAT’S TRENDING NOW
Arsenal transfer news: £20.5m winger
talks, top target wants move, quality
striker swoop
Arsenal get triple injury boost as key
trio return to training ahead of
schedule
Manchester United transfer news:
£30m bid, shock striker swoop,
Chelsea hijack
Exclusive: How England star Alex Scott
is pioneering the role of women in
sport
NEWS FEED
Exclusive: How
England star Alex
Scott is pioneering the
role of women in sport
Chelsea star ready to
quit club after new
development – report
Liverpool aiming to
sign La Liga’s fastest
player, £15m sees deal
agreed – report
This bizarre Man
United revelation will
make you hate modern
football
Liverpool fans are
about to find out why
Benteke is easily
worth £32.5m
QUIZ: Can you tackle the hardest
sports questions of 2015?
Has 2015 been a good year for sport?
1
2
3
4
814 shares
61 shares
53 shares
29 shares
24 shares
Olivier Giroud 56%
Sergio Aguero 25%
Jamie Vardy 13%
Romelu Lukaku 6%
Harry Kane 0%
Other 0%
Perhaps the Stoke players will loose track of time and will still be playing x-box by the time kick off comes thereby loosing the game (the real one) by default.
Seriously…why worry, when did we ever slip up against this team before (irony alert)!?
Errrrr ?
Player coming in Elneny.
Emerging players
Iwobi + Campbell.
Players almost back Sanchez + Rosicky.
Players in training Coquelin + Wilshere.
Arsenal looking good with Cazorla still to return.
The records have been stacked against Arsenal for this fixture (for over 30 years)…but records are meant to be broken.
COYG
They won’t be able to handle Campbell.
I don’t think our defenders will like Shaqiri very much as well!
Hes injured
Darren, you’ve highlighted a point that’s not been taking into congnizant. Arsenal have uncharasteristically conceded 7 goals in their last 2 BPL games. Our Dmf and defence line must be porous to have conceded that high. Even Petr Cech cannot be absolved of the blame for conceding that Liverpool’s 3rd goal by Joe Allen. That Allen’s low drive was stoppable. But Cech allowed it in to his net as he was not sharp on his dive to stop the shot. Cech was clumsy with his diving to stop Allen’s shot. However, we now have a new Dmf Elneny, who should be an upgrade to the aging Flamini that can no longer play many game at a stretch without dropping his defending qualities. If the Boss will agree to start Elneny instead of Flamini for this match, we might see a great holding quality at our midfield base in the match. And less I forget, the Boss might also start De Abreu alongside Koscielny at the Gunners’ CBs position to enforce more discipline at our center back-line. This means I’ve made 1 change to my own starts.
El Nenny is NOT a DM
Repeat that slowly to yourself 20 times
We all know it ain’t going to be easy. Life itself is not easy yet we live it.