It became a bit of an issue for Arsenal last year and I think it got into the players heads that an early kick off in the Premier League on Saturday following a midweek game in the Champions League would give the Gunners all sorts of problems.
Arsene Wenger was even asked about it in his pre-match press conference reported by Arsenal.com. The boss was quite dismissive about the issue, as he should be because the last thing the players need is it being built up into a big thing in their minds. We have enough problems winning games in the league without any mental stumbling blocks.
But it does present a problem, with only a couple of days between the tough Champions League clash with Dortmund and a trip to West Brom, especially with a hatful of injuries weakening the Gunners squad. However, there are a few things that Wenger can do to make sure that the early kick-off does not present a problem.
He has already done one of them by playing it down and the fact that we got a positive result on Wednesday will also help, as the game last season that made this an issue was the trip to Man City after losing to Napoli away, but there was travel involved and a tougher team to face then.
The main thing for us at West Brom is to keep the pressing game up and not to let our work rate drop. So the boss needs to look carefully at who might be heavy legged and give them a rest if possible. With Giroud and Welbeck and possibly even Walcott available, Koscielny back in the squad and Flamini fairly fresh, that should not be too hard.
After that, the Gunners must stay confident and stick with the way we have played in the last two games and that should see us come back to north London with a vital three points.
we are so biased with this early kick-off thing……. We have made it a mentality and a platform for failure/Woeful perfomances…. We are the only ones who can break this jinx (which we’ve instilled upon ourselves) …..westbrom won’t be easy, considering what chelsea did 2 em Last weekend… There’s no such thing as Time factor in football, its not Like one team would be playing in daylight against the other at night……we” be playing in the same weather, temp or humidity……. We best get our acts right and forget about this early kick-off curse…… I REST MY CASE
Just go into the game with a positive mindset, and adapt a winning mentality! Lets focus on getting 3 crucial points against west brom today! Coyg!
…and yet another excuse!
COYG 🙂
Jeez!
With the kind of form we showed against ManUTD (regardless of the result) and Dortmund, Westbrom (who are mentally battered atm) should be routine win now.
I can understand the panic and the trepidation. But that early season form is behind us now!
Some of us (who aren’t naive) always knew that immediately 4th place/CL place ( A.K.A the ultimate motivation) came under threat, we’ll see a different Arsenal team (and manager) -bullying the smaller teams, fighting tooth & nail with the big teams- arise.
Now begins our (usual?) run of good form. This is the part where we are supposed to forget all our persistent problems, and stop moaning about the managers failures.
exactly….
This is how Arsenal can beat West From:
– Buy a DM
– Buy a CB
– Buy a LW
– Only play an actual AM as no. 10
– Train properly and try using tactic
– Don’t be star struck by Berahino
– When the ball is in the box – shoot
– Most importantly of all – do your dam aerobics
I THINK THAT IF COMING JANUARY WINDOW AND EARLY WENGER DON’T BUY A SOLID DM LIKE IMBULA,KONDOGBIA,SCHNEIDERLIN,WANYAMA,SHELVEY,DIAME…WE FANS WILL WRITE ON MANY SPOT THIS AT THE EMIRATES : “IF NO DM AND NO CB THIS WINDOW,WENGER OUT!” THEN,MEDIA WILL FOCUS ON THAT AND A.W. WILL UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE TIRED WITH THIS SAME PROBLEMS.
I DON’T KNOW IF WENGER DON’T SEE PLAYERS LIKE US FANS. FOR CB I WILL TAKE FABIAN SCHAR ANYDAY AND WINSTON REID,FOR DM SCHNEIDERLIN OR WANYAMA OR IMBULA,KONDOGBIA ANYDAY,BUT WENGER WILL SAY THEY ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH…
Off topic……. sorry guys I have to say thus on this thread because of the respect I have for his playing ability not his personal life I must confessed….
Happy 41st birthday to Ryan Giggs Legend of the beautiful game without thought. #legend.
To the to pick….admin or Bob or over wrote this are you making excuse for them…even without kicking the ball yet….I really don’t like to associate with failure.. for God sake its WBA for crying out loud..thought no disrespect….anything less than 3point today is tantamount to failure.. I don’t care if they play game yesterday…. period.
what a load of shit bottom line the team needs to stop crying and man up.
im sick or this they get paid stupid money and to be honest so not worth it.
we pay top top top prices for tops tickets so on but the are like girls. AW needs to stop the players looking like stick insects and put some pounds on them and maybe the sick note would stop just for change
AW said he might bring in one player in jan shit man bring in 5 so you don’t need to spend in the summer and build from there. remember that manager at man united? yep he new just who he wanted and he got them
go freeking earn yr worth coz as an arsenal fan I’m so pissed of with the same lines ever week
O AND COYG