Ospina – Arsenal HAVE bounced back and are aiming for Man City

As Arsene Wenger said, it was vital that Arsenal returned to winning ways against Everton this weekend, and one of the heros of that game, David Ospina, told the Mail how important it was to keep picking up points in the title race.

“We were not nervous, we were sad after the Monaco result but in football you have to pick yourselves up quickly,” Ospina insisted. “Obviously it was a tough night on Wednesday but you have always got to bounce back and yesterday was a great way to show that we had done that.

“After what happened against Monaco, the only thing that was important was to win the big game to continue increasing our confidence and keeping heading up the table. Now we are already thinking about the next one, which is QPR.”

Asked whether Arsenal were thinking about overtaking Man City in second place, Ospina said: “We know we are close to them now but we need to concentrate on ourselves and not think about them. We will keep doing our job, picking up points and then see what happens.”

Another win against QPR on Wednesday will give them the added confidence going into the crucial FA Cup game at Old Trafford next weekend, and the Gunners can forget about the Monaco debacle until the return leg in France….

Tags Man City ospina QPR

14 Comments

  1. We still don’t seem to be firering on all cylinders. March is supposed to be our bogey month so let’s prove our detractors in the print wrong.Win the next run of games and I for one will be over the proverbial moon.
    COYG

  2. Theory No. 6:
    Alexis Sanchez breaks arsenal’s passing rhythm by holding on to the ball too much.
    Why is it that Arsenal were much better in passing in the last season and are now not playing fluid passing football this season? Last season arsenal produced quality team goals such as wilshere’s and rosiky’s goals. They were looking more fluid in attack than they are now. They are getting goals this season but they are far from convincing apart from the goals at Villa.
    The truth is Arsenal have changed their style from possession football to now counter attacking just to accommodate Sanchez. He holds on to the ball too much and waits for someone to make runs and tries to find. In a way which is a lot similar to Cazorla, Ozil or Rosicky. He either need to make walcott like runs and make the attack more fluid by passing to the players who are making runs or not making runs. He needs to trust arsenal players as he doesn’t apparently. He thinks he has to do all by himself. Arsenal players have the quality that will make him trust them.

    1. I disagree in part. Alexis DOES hold the ball too long and it is a factor to our slower game, but I think it’s an outside feature. Remember, Wilshere is also well known for holding the ball too long and he was in the centre of the park last year! The difference is really in where our passing is happening.

      I’m not a huge fan of Arteta but he does a job. In our midfield he makes short, accurate passes that get the ball moving. Once that ball is moving, we can play our pass and move. If you don’t have the legs of Ramsey or Wilshere though, the little intricate one twos are just not happening as much. Our width is being limited by players like Welbeck stepping inside so our passing gets stilted because we have to check back alot from a wall of 9 or 10 players. Most importantly though, we’ve been generally poor at passing this term and been making sloppy mistakes I can’t really put my finger on: I’m assuming it is down to the constant lack of football training and such a huge focus on injury recovery going on amongst our squad! Wenger also HAS made a tactical switch to accomodate a more defensive style, while also expecting faster ball into the attack for counters. This means our passing distance has been increased and often we are playing ahead of the rest of the midfield.

      In short: Yes, Alexis slows the pace. No, he’s not the only reason we’re not making as many passes stick.

  3. Ospina hasn’t been here long enough to know that Wenger will find a way to screw it up eventually.

  4. I love these post match revelations!

    “It was important that we bounce back after playing like 3 legged donkeys without functioning cerebrums ”

    Really, thought it was better to lay down and accept you are the worst but to keep collecting your substantial pay packets..

    Give it a rest. I know they have to say something but come on!

    If they had more ‘balls’ in the first place they wouldn’t have to keep bouncing back!

  5. Alexis has slowed our passing game for sure, but I won’t mind arsenal sacrificing beautiful football and possession so long as they score goals! I also hope the Carzola rumour is untrue as it makes sense (arsenal player age policy of 1 yr extension may force him out)

  6. another headline that we getting to far ahead of ourselves….remember the other ones bout Arsenal winning CL this season…..1 step at a time…
    should be focusing on beating QPR for now…

    1. True, one game at a time – but never once heard anyone on here, in the press/media, anywhere, seriously suggest we were gonna win UCL. And we’ve just proved why that was the case.

      1. I think some did.
        Including me. But I didn’t expect them to play quite as bad as soon as they did.

        Should no better!

  7. Arsenal were willing to break their age policy last year that would have enabled them to retain Bacary Sagna. But Sagna refused to continue staying at Arsenal and left for Man City on more wages ground. I wouldn’t fault him for doing so at his age. Cazorla may decide to follow suit if his is offered a similar lucrative deal which Arsenal may not be willing to match. I wouldn’t fault Arsenal if they refuse to pay above the board to retain Cazorla. Nonetheless, if Arsenal still want to keep Cazorla, I am sure they will offer him another contract extention extending his deal by 2 years to keep him at the club for another 3 seasons after the current one. I like Ospina thoughts on Arsenal to maintain consistency in winning games. That is what I call ambition. The Gunners have be ambitious and audacious in winning all their remaining 11 Barclays Premeir League games to have an outside chance of picking the title. Let’s not forget massive points will still be dropped by both Chelsea and Man City to make that Arsenal’s chance of winning the title a possibility. I will do my own starts that will thoroughly beat QPR tomorrow after the boss’ press conference.

  8. Chambers holding midfielder if Le Coq not fit copying chelskys Zouma’s success on Saturday against the spuds?

  9. I stopped commenting since after the Monaco game, although i should leave it behind me, it still hurts in the back, top three n maybe fa cup, we know how long the transfer season will be, then who knows what next, we might win it next year (as we always say)

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