Anyone who was watching Arsenal go 1-0 up after 5 minutes and completely dominate the rest of half would have thought it impossible they could not go on and destroy Man City. The pass from Sanchez was sublime and surprisingly Walcott’s run was perfect and his finish was even better. Arsenal were all over City and were sure to make their dominance count.
Walcott and Alexis carried on harrying the City defence but could not quite get the second goal that would have given us a nice cushion. We expected more of the same in the second half, but whatever Pep said in the dressing room must have put the fear of God into his players because they came out like lions. Oh and he also changed things on the pitch with Sagna replacing Zabeleta. Something worked as their first attack decisively cut through Arsenal’s defence, and immediately two records were broken. Mane became the youngest ever Man City player to score against Arsenal, and it was also the first time in the Premiership that Petr Cech has conceded a goal in 8 games in a row.
Wenger replaced Iwobi with the Ox with 25 mins to go, but City were totally in control. Surprisingly it took until the 70th minute before they actually took the lead. Sterling took receipt of a brilliant long pass from De Bruyne and controlled it well and slotted it past Cech, who is not in a happy place at the moment.
With 15 minutes to go Arsenal brought on Giroud, but 2 minutes later City very nearly increased their lead as they hit the post after a bit of pinball in the box. Arsenal then took the Ox off after just 13 minutes on the pitch (injured or just rubbish?) and replaced him with Elneny. The Gunners seemed to pick up their tempo a bit after that but they never really looked like getting an equalizer….
So Arsenal are now back in fourth with Liverpool still to play. Cue the WengerOut comments from here on….
Admin
i tell people ramsey is important
Desperation knows no bounds
Well where do we start – Xhaka instead of Kante was a huge mistake and we are seeing it now. Perez is another one – why buy someone of mediocre quality, we already have Giroud and Wellbeck in that position that are mediocre. The failure to buy a world class forward for 4 years.
So bad transfers, bad tactics, late changes, and lack of motivation. Put all that together and you get the last decade of Wenger.
He is going to leave Arsenal in such a bad state that we will not recover for a long long time – Sanchez and Ozll will/should probably leave. We will be a Liverpool for the next decade. We deserve it for betting on mediocracy when we could have seeked greatness.
ZERO clean sheets in 12 matches. Time to change the keeper..?
Well title is gone, best we can get this season is top 4 finish and maybe FA cup.
Wenger has to go in the summer. I’m ready for a change.
It starts with being brace in the summer transfer market and not always wait for a deal to pop. I’m sick
Been telling my fellow gooners since the beginning of the season not to get carried away. We draw Bayern and people on this forum got so cocky. Then we immedialtey lose our next two games. I’ve been saying to WAIT and see if this team is really different from past seasons, and at the moment it looks like we are crumbling again. If we are a different team from last season we will go on a winning streak and put these two horrible games behind us. Chelsea also had a terrible run and now they haven’t dropped points in forever. Arsenal players and Wenger need to get inspired. Wenger has been delivering false hope for years yet people still buy into it and make excuses for him. Arsene Wenger has been missing something for years. All his teams throw in the towel too easily the moment things get rough. Arsene needs to prove he can make champions, because he hasn’t in over a decade, so why is he still around?
I have been saying for past 5 /6 years Wenger as had his time need a change, this will be another season with nothing won !!!! wait and see
Just broke my second plasma tv in 5 years …
Last season was the last time I broke something because of Arsenal. No more!
why would you buy 2 of them?? They’re the worst…
Shocking performance once again, nothing has changed this season, same old same old… we gonna settle for a champions league spot and get knocked out at the round of 16 by bayern… highly irritated
Xhaka trending
he is daMN overrated and guess what people here prefer him to pogba and kante. Oh my arsenal lovers, we are having too much of delusional medicine
Xhaka is the new pretty boy, and some Arsenal fans won’t admit they have a man-crush on him. He’s not the complete player the internet has hyped him up to be. I still think he can become great for us in the future, but AW got a lot of flack for not starting him ahead of Coquelin, and people were hating on Coq. Imagine how terrible our midfield would be without Coquelin. It’s embarrassing Gooners were hating on an academy graduate who got into the team through pure hard work!
Arsenal is impostor, pretending to be good, it’s a shame no good Players can achieve anything in this Club at the moment, I’m so sorry for Players like Sanchez, Coquelin and koscieny, but so Obvious lack of fighting spirit and winning mentality in Wenger is affecting this Club and it’s not changing any moment.
-A battered man city team is still levels above arsenal.
-Arsenal false hope lead continues to deceive
-Arsenal in depth squad is overrated
-ice man xhaka loses quality when intensity goes up
-oh look, Montreal getting bombarded in LB, thank god it’s my position says teammates
-alexis receives wake up call on the amount of potatoes in arsenal
-defeat should serve as an eye opener but in arsenal case, not good enough. We really need a 6-0 beating to learn some manners.
we have been beaten 8-2 and 6-0 in the past but our joke of a manager still got his contract renewed.
Man these lots should be ashamed of themselves. I have been saying since september, we have been awful. Why doesn’t wenger sub ozil, he ain’t doing anything good. If he wants to leave then he is most welcome. I hate saying this but we are better of without him. God damn awful attitude.
no we aren’t even when his not playing well he is miles better than anything we have got i.e Ramsey. Please stop this bias hate towards Ozil when no one played well today including snachez.
Arsene is missing something.
He needs to fix this before we get way too far ahead
#behind
Yep wenger needs to fix it by going to the retirement home!!!!!!!
Strasbourg a nice city … He should go back there and stay put
We didn’t lose, we were beaten.
Arsene is missing something.
He needs to fix things before we get way too far behind.
We are already far behind. We wont catch Chelsea, City will be even stronger with Aguero,Fernandinho,Gundogan back. Liverpool ahead of us with game in hand and Spurs have almost caught up with us. Even United might catch up with us if we keep playing this way.
Feel ashamed of the performance. Gutless performance. Midfield was non-existent. Hate to say this but Wenger has to go, it is crystal clear this man cannot take us any further. The players have to take the blame too, but Wenger has been absolutely shocking,clueless. Get a young,hungry manager and he will turn around the team I’m sure.
The only player that should be guaranteed a starting spot in our midfield is COQUELIN!
Were they looking for mushroom on the pitch????
Ozil just love to disappear in a big match. This has been a long time coming. We havent kept a cleansheet in any competition in MONTHS so right away us fans probably knew we’d need more than one goal. Late subs by Wenger as well. When we are starved of possession Elneny is the obvious change to make yet he didn’t do this. Giroud should’ve been on earlier as well. Alexis looks dejected after this game. He won’t renew his contract if we blow it again. Bellerin also terrible today. Ozil has been scoring more lately which has covered up for the fact he no longer creates decent chances for the team. It’s all on Alexis. Terrible 2nd half and we deserved to lose.
Don’t understand why they play like they are not up for it. Pay me 100K a week and I am up for it. So disappointing.
the most overrated team with the most overrated manager
Will it be another week of top 6 winning beside us?
Marry Christmas!!!!
I’ve never seen ozil this sluggish, in fact, none of them was ready to play except Alexis
This is the by far the worst Arsenal performance this season
Coquelin and Alexis were the only two up for this match. Same as Everton game. It’s pathetic!
12 players in this team need to play below 10th in the table
Who are they? I need names lol.
Can anyone blame Sanchez for not resigning?we the same as before nothing has changed!
Lol
To think Özil should be in his prime. After three and a half seasons I realize this league is not for him. You just can’t have that much talent and be so anonymous every time it matters in England. Even scarier is the thought of him staying and Alexis leaving.
It’s all very well Ozil playing well and scoring against teams like Ludogrets but he hasn’t done it in the league for a long time and was just anonymous in the last 2 games when we want him to dominate games. After all he is supposed to be world class It seems other teams find it easy to subdue him.
Standard Wenger season so far:
Not the best transfer window, and no WC striker signed yet again.
Awful record in the big games.
Qualified from our Champions League group.
Miles off the top of the league, and we’re not even at the halfway point.
Wenger still cannot win the League Cup.
Barely anytime on the clock, Giroud upfront, desperate for a goal, yet we still must play tiki-taka, which is the Wenger way.
Same thing every season with Wenger, consistent mediocrity! If you speak to any AKB, this is as good as it gets. Arsenal cannot do any better apparently! What a joke! Please, oh please, let this be his last season.
Its what we deserve.
We need to start competing witj tottenham and united for fourth place.No need to talk about the bayern game i will be somewhere hiding
I know the second half was poor but the lads dropped thier heads after the offside goal was given. The level of officiating was piss poor
We just don’t have the mental attitude of champions. We are way too fragile mentally, we can not show up and fight for 90 minutes.
This game also highlights the importance in the modern game of being able to make half-time and intra-game adjustments. Pep did a great job of that.
I just don’t see us as a team anymore.if wenger is really bad, then I don’t think he made the invincibles. It was the players that showed cohesion and desire to win
Our crop of players have been around for like 2-3 years but they are doing their job, not play football. There’s no passion, no hunger.
I’m an arsenal fan through and through but I don’t see this team as world beaters. Individually good, collectively bad. Maybe cannons should be replaced with laser guns?
December is the new November!
Probably the worst performance of the season, next to Man Utd away. What the hell happened after half time ? we showed them WAY too much respect. This city team are really NOT that good, if you press them they will panic but we just dropped deeper and deeper and deeper till we went behind and then played something that at least resembled football in the last 15, WHY wait ? we were on the front foot for the first half and didn’t turn up the pressure, Chelsea away clearly shows that we are at our best when we press teams, fine if they equalized while we were pressing, drop back into the shape and counter but why wait till you go down then chase the game ? Are these players serious about challenging for the title ? The whole midfield was passive, back 4 too static, Ozil missing (again, wenger seriously needs to have a word with him, if he wants to leave bench him i couldn’t care less,he seems to think hes more important to this team than he actually is while putting in almost no effort off the ball), which left our attack pretty much powerless. Trying to keep the faith but its looking like the same old story; Start well, top the table a few times before Christmas, collapse between Christmas-February then go on a run between February-May. Its so frustrating because the players obviously have the quality, we’ve seen it, but for some reason they seemed scared today ? Man City were absolutely there for the taking and we bottled it. 9 points is not an impossible gap to close but with Chelsea winning 11 in a row and conceding only twice, our season is not looking good at all if we don’t sort it out as soon as possible. COME ON YOU GUNNERS!
This team is mentally so weak its shocking. Sterling alone against our entire back line and nobody closed him down. 4 against one and Monreal thinks lets not get close to Sterling,let him get into the box and allow him to take the shot.
Not Nacho’s fault that Lolo didn’t go closer. 1 v 4, the he coulda gone closer to help.
Stop making out Ozil is a god. if he was that brilliant he would still be at Real. Every big game he goes missing. Wenger is a lost cause. Time for the AKB’s to swallow their pride support club instead and move on.
No Mustafi, no Santi = no victory. To beat a Guardiola team you need a player that can break the first line of of pressure and go forward. Xhaka always went sideways or negative, and playing forward penetrating passes isn’t LeCoq’s game.
People blame Mesut, but without Santi then he just gets crowded out because every team knows we’ve no one else to create.
LK6 isn’t the same without Mustafi, and our attack can’t seem to get started under pressure without Santi. Santi’s replacement is what we need, and in a hurry.
Ridiculous. So Ozil can’t play well without Cazorla? And hilarious that you say only Ozil can create chances when Sanchez has created the best chances all season for us, as well as being our top goal scorer. Just admit Ozil routinely fails to show up in big games, because it’s true. He hides, and it’s obvious. He should be demanding the ball at his feet whenever XHaka or Coquelin were in possession. Instead, you could barley even pick him out on the pitch. He should be leading our attack alongside Sanchez. Instead it is just Sanchez with this burden.
Wasn’t a good game from him at all, but you’re missing what I’m saying. He can easily be run off the ball if there’s not another player in the middle that can break the lines and drive us forward individually/technically. I’m not tryna argue with you RSH. That won’t help me feel better about the loss.
Bottom line, we need more quality. More true technical footballers that can maintain possession under high pressure. Otherwise we won’t beat the big boys that pressure us.
I feel bad for Gabriel, because he seems like a good player, but something about his inclusion to the middle of the defense unsettles us. He was fine on the right, but something about centrally doesn’t sit well with us.
Tough loss. Painful.
So the same should be true for Alexis? He has no quality around him, thus we should make that an excuse for whenever he doesn’t play well. Oh, wait, Alexis puts his heart into every game, chases every ball, and plays every match like it’s his last. Im not expecting Ozil to defend and tackle, but he is so lax and irrelevant in so many matches. Look at a player like KDB who grabs the game by the neck and leads the entire City attack. This is what we need from Ozil, but instead we see him misplacing simple passes, strolling around aimlessly, or not even trying to make himself available. No, Walcott and Iwobi are not world class, but you can’t blame everyone around Ozil whenever he doesn’t perform.
Not attempting to. Mesut was poor. Just running around like say, Ramsey for example, still wouldn’t be enough. We need industry and quality – like Alexis……and anyone that would play for Diego Simeone.
What I’m saying, again not arguing with you, is that so much of our attack is built from deep and starts with our CM. When it’s Santi we do much better than when it’s not Santi. That’s all I’m saying. We need another player like him, based on our current style if we’re not going to change our style. Thiago, Isco.
Agree, we are missing something in CM position that only Santi brings. And your original post did say more than that, but okay.
when recently i expressed my opinion that sorry to say, we are not good enough to be champions, i was redeculed by some comments and was told i am not a true supporter. before mr stubborn leave the club the same will happen year after year. he has no ideas in the modern game. can someone pls illuminate me why he brought in the ox and substituted him again – always a gooner from the heart
The Ox tweaked a hamstring.
Important Notice!! Arsenal FC is on holiday for the festive season as usual. We will be back in January, When we will mount a challenge for our Top Four title. Happy Holidays to all AFC Fans!!
To Wenger, Kroenke and Gazidis,
Thanks for yet another s##t christmas and i hope you choke on the millions you made off us.
Thought we are winning the league…..is Wenger deluded? definitely!
but you guys are more deluded….
You still dunno Wenger is past it,u dunno ozil is overrated,you dunno no matter who Wenger buys nothing changes.
I see people being overly excited as if they just get to know arsenal
am sure some still haven’t learn,they will still expect Chelsea to crumble and arsenal to take advantage…..indeed!!!
I’m starting to feel some players have become expensive mistakes.
I agree entirely. Give me £10 a week and I can go out and loose win able games. They are getting 10s of thousands and playing like 5 year olds. And as for the manager my goodness ?
£10 a week? You’ll get more on benefit bro
Wenger’s reflection (too soft and timid)is on the team,he stays and nothing big will
come our way…simple! yes he has EPL experience but he has now become a learner and he cant it anymore, when Wenger goes we just keep our style and add aggression and power with work rate and we will be good..
Just a reminder pls don’t listen to wenger post match interview it will make you even mad, keep yourself away from the TV.
Marry Christmas!!!
Yes, it is true; a game of 2 halves. One where we were dominated by a mediocre City team, but somehow kept them from scoring and one half where we didn’t turn up at all. Useless.
Spot on. Great comment.
fourth, fourth, fourth. Always fourth. Am sick of it.
you can say what you want, but if players make similar mistakes and show no passion, something is wrong with the management. Wenger must leave this summer. he can no longer motivate players for success. there is no much difference between arsenal squad and Chelsea or city squad. the main difference is the managers. New managers keep coming and winning and get fired. Wenger finishes fourth and renews contract…….to finish fourth…again.
We haven’t been fourth in two seasons, it’s been 3rd and 2nd so stop saying fourth.
Do agree with wenger leaving though. Just stop chatting shit.
OH poor SANCHEZ, they let u down mate. Can’t lift Arsenal alone. Cant even blame u if u decide to go. Soooooooooo freaking frustrating!!!! We neva learn anything!!! see Chelsea after 3 nil thumping, they went home n corrected their mistakes, see where they now. as 4 us same mistakes over n over again, nt 2 mention yr after yr. DA best way to protect a 1 nil lead is to score another goal. What does LUCAS has to do to get sm play time??? Wanna repeat the Campbell again, who was miles better than OX n Theo. Monreal was roasted onthe LB, i wld prefer Gibbs for Iwobi on substitution. Mr OZIL needs sm bench time, try Ramsey/Iwobi at 10. And if Cech continues to leak, we got Ospina who did no wrong to be displaced at no. 1.
Now, EPL is gone. Gatta fight for FA n throw in everything to KO Bayern. Only that way will b comforted. Coz honestly we play like this, even top 4 wont be easy at all…
Listening to wenger what a load of codswallop. He bought the panel and if the panel is not up to it it is your fault wenger!!
All those dropped points are coming back to haunt us.
Arsenal 3 Liverpool 4
Leicester 0 Arsenal 0
Arsenal 0 Middlesbrough 0
Arsenal 1 Tottenham 1
Manchester Utd 1 Arsenal 1
Everton 2 Arsenal 1
Manchester City 2 Arsenal 1
This isn’t the form of a title winning team. Let’s get real. Two of those teams we lost to are also above us.
A lot of you are giving Arsenal waaaay too much credit for the first half. Apart from a well worked goal all the signs were there that we were going to capitulate.
Well done Guardiola for making a few tweaks and for City players for executing his plan. But let’s be honest, Arsenal were out coached, out played and, worst of all, out hearted.
Pathetic performance
Hw do you gv so much space to a team and expect dem nt to beat u? The team was rubbish, the coach made stupid changes. Always making reaction change instead of proactive ones. It was obvious that Ellen should have been the first to come on in place of Ozil who can’t seem to trap a ball or hold on to it. Giroud if needed at all shld have been in at 1-1 replacing a Walcott who apart from the goal wch bravo made easy for him was rubbish. Cech kept putting the defense under pressure wch led to the first goal for dem. Wenger needs to go at the end of the season even if he wins a treble. He gives too credence to his opponents. We should have started with intensity in the second half but d manager told dem to seat back. Feel like breaking my fone. Around terrible performance. RUBBISH!!!
#Elneny
You had it right first time. Ellen would have done better than Ozil today.
I usually comes to the web just to see, what other gunners think but today i have officially registered myself to express my feelings… Its simply sooo painful to be arsenal fan, For years i have been expecting to see different arsenal but when it comes to big games and most import time of the season they will always do the expected, my heart feels excruciating pain and i’m regretting to put all this hopes to Arsenal. Sorry for my poor english.
Y is Ozil never subbed off? Is it because they think he will create a bit of magic? Wao. The only magic he performs is to disappear wen others stand up to be counted. Awful performance
Sanchez has every right to leave dont bother him guys.
The man is a winner a passionate guy.
He might be looking around and saying to himself ‘what trash even my chilean national is much better than this garbage.’
When the bayern game comes I will dig a hole to hide myself in it
I’m still trying to figure out why Lucas Perez can’t get a look in for a league game after scoring a hattrick and allowing us to top our champions league group in years. Why did we buy him?
The only 2 that plays for the badge are Coquelin and Alexis.
If we really divulge ourselves of sentiments and tell ourselves bitter truth, Mourinho is right about Wenger. He has the easiest JOB and most contented fans in the world. No pressure from management at all.
they are still begging him to sign new contract as we speak. Arsenal cannot go and win at Old Trafford, Saint Mary, Swansea, Stamford bridge, Anfield, Etihad, etc
How can we be champions ????
*********
……Admin should also purge himself of sentimental journalism. Apart from the early goal, we played crap. We had only one shot on target which was the goal. We defended not less than 7 corners kicks. that tells us where the pressures were coming from.
@Admin, pls stop over pampering our darling teams. I don’t think you love Arsenal than anyone of us on this platform.
Albeit away games 2 losses in a row. December our new November?
#slipslidingdownthetable.
Oh also Ozil poor and disinterested today.
On days like today I would have loved to see Ozil come off and either one of Cazorla or Jack come on at 10 if not injured and loaned.
Calm the hell down, look at the fixtures until February 4th. All those games we will win and all will be forgotten. I`ve said a million times, we will never win the league under wenger ever again. Now i`m certain HE doesn`t even want to win the league ever again, his job right now is to just see out his contract and not get sacked.
Wenger should respect his legacy and not sign a new contract
I am surprised how only me has this view on Cech, his kicks are awful. Mou was right……its either he kicks out of the field or direct to the opponents his kick caused the first goal.
Psychologically arsenal is weak and I blame it on Wenger. A team like arsenal stops playing and raise hands when a player falls even when the ref is yet to blow the whistle. Poor arsenal. Can’t turn up when playing big matches.
This is a big “what if” question. What if our manager was not managing for whatever reason would Bouldie step in and be effective? In other words , what kind manager would he be?
I really feel bad for a talented player like Bellerin. If I have him as a brother now, I will advise him to look out the window for a better club courting so that he can win some better laurels in his career.
Wenger WILL never win EPL with Arsenal again. People like Owen, Le Roy may seem like having dislike for us, we are certainly helping them with our lacklustre performances. And I am beginning to believe that they are right after all.
In GOD knows how many seasons I’ve seen new managers come and win the the league while we’re still in the twilight zone. I’d rather lose like this with a new manager in transition than with one that has had 2 decades.
I hope Ox wasn’t subbed off because of injury and rather because he isn’t good enough. That would serve as a stark warning to others.
I would play Gibbs as LW in next game, atleast that way we will get ‘real’ wing play and more defensive cover on that side. Sanchez as RW and Perez or Giroud upfront.
Everytime Bellerin gets the ball, Walcott moves inside the pitch instead of supporting him. Again Walcott is not a real winger. It worked for the goal, and only for that.
The fullbacks Bellerin, Monreal and Gibbs do more wing play than Ox,Walcott and Iwobi.
Unfortunately we can’t drop Ozil there is no replacement at this time.
Arsene is past it.He won’t win any major trophy (epl and ucl) for my beloved club.
no guts, no bottle , no mettle, no balls, no direction,no ideas,no stamina,no appetite, no will , no hope . i am not calling for wenger out . i have sang that song way too many times in the past .we, as arsenal fans are now reaping what we have sown . well at least 50% of you have .another blankety blank season on the horizon. we looked positively mid-table material in the second half.oh dear oh dear !!!.
GUTTED…Thats all.
Gutted is what happens to dead fish … Fans need to stand up and be counted …
Some of us are right to express our joy when winning but also disconte when pathetic performance like today. Aging this, I just watch full of jealousy how the likes of Conte , Klopp, Pep and Simeone are coaches on their areas screaming at their players when things don’t go their way. It is an injection of fight and energy transmitted to the players. Our coach is fighting his zipper and only brags with the fourth official when feeling bored. In few words, WE NEED SOMEON WITH MORE PASSION SO THE PLAYERS GET MOTIVATED. TODAY CONTE WOULD HAVE KEPT THEM TRAINI AFTER GAME LIKE THIS. Go and get Draxler soon and move Ozil to CM so we get Alexis with a calibre player and pace next to him. MUSTAFI BADLY MISSED too
We have the players who can win the EPL, but we do not have the right Manager to win the title. Wenger has past it. Lucas got an hat trick in the last CL game, but has been on the bench since. No law says Ozil has to play every match. Wenger should be flexible in his tactics. There are times when he needs to change tactics. Like Play a 424 formation. the 2 midfielders being Coq and Xhaka. The 4 attackers been Sanchez, Lucas, AOC and Walcott. Sanchez plays a free role and Lucas the target man. Xhaka playing long balls to Walcott and AOC. Quick counter attacking football. When you get the early goals, bring in Ozil, Elneny and Giroud. Wenger cannot win the Champions league. He should go at the end of the season.