Scoring goals made the difference for Arsenal!

Today’s 4-0 win over Watford was a welcome relief for Arsenal fans as we showed the clinical finishing that has been missing for most of our games since the New Year. It was also sweet revenge for our FA Cup defeat by the same time just three weeks ago, and Wenger thinks that we dominated both games just as much, but the difference this time was that we actually finished our chances.

Le Prof said after the game: “We played well. We had a good flow in our game and a good desire to play. Our technical quality was high and we combined the fact that we played well and that we could score as well. In the FA Cup defeat we had the same domination but we couldn’t score. That makes a big difference.”

The Gunners have now moved a little closer to the top of the table, at least until Leicester play tomorrow, but Wenger respects that the Foxes deserve to be where they are, but suggested that they were helped immensely by not being involved in any other competitions in the last few weeks. “The title is never there for the taking, you have to work for it. Everybody works for it and you have to respect the teams who have more points than you, and who have not played in as many competitions. We played Watford, then went to Barcelona on Wednesday and then to Everton on Saturday. It’s not the same [for Leicester City]. People on the outside think it’s easy but you have to earn your points, work well in every game and recently we haven’t made the most of the chances we’ve created. We paid for that.

“We want to focus on the way we play and keep the quality very high. Then we’ll see where we are. We will fight until the end to have a chance. The only way we can achieve that is by playing games with our team quality. That is based on our movement, on our technical ability to play at the highest level and at the highest pace.”

Is it a surprise that our return to form has coincided with the arrival of Alex Iwobi and Mohamed Elneny in the starting line-ups? Wenger has certainly been impressed with both of them. First of all he spoke about Iwobi: “We have values in our club that are maybe not rated always, but one of them is to give a chance to young people and educate them. Every year we bring players out and not many players can say that. I’m happy Alex is one of them. He arrived here at the age of seven or eight. He’s completely integrated in the way we want to play football. He’s worked with us since the start of the season and it shows because when he came in he was used to the way we want to play.

“[Fearlessness] It’s one of his qualities. He’s also very mobile and is a midfielder with creativity, but is also a finisher. The quality of his receptions is very good because he gets into good spaces.”

And this is what Le Prof had to say about Elneny: “He has brought something to the team. He is a very intelligent player who is also very mobile and works very hard for the team. He gives us tactical stability. He made a very good pair with Coquelin in terms of winning the ball back, and also in the distribution as well.”

Wenger ends up by telling us all to keep our feet on the ground and just carry on taking it one game at a time. “Let’s focus on the next game. We know what is needed and what is needed is to keep the quality very high. Next week we go to West Ham. It’s always a difficult place to go, so let’s prepare for that.”

The Hammers are definitely not going to pushovers like Watford were today. They are fighting hard to get past Man City into fourth place and can be expected to fight us hard next weekend, but if we carry on in this irresistible form there is no reason why we can’t get another three points.

Onwards and Upwards!

Tags Elneny Iwobi Wenger

16 Comments

  1. Good day ☺???
    1. Win
    2. Big win
    3. Iwobi
    4. Alexis got on the scorecard
    5. Clean sheet
    6. Spuds drew so only 1 point behind

    Negative
    Alexis injury. Hope he is okay ???

    Now we desperately need Southampton to do us a flavour

  2. In my opinion arsenal best performance of the season in epl was because of 3 reasons
    1-very fast defence in the presence of gabriel
    2-elneny direct play and his 96% accuracy
    He leaves sanchez, ozil and iwobi to do the job he just give them the ball ana cover them
    3-the absence of giroud on the pitch,giroud style of play doesn’t make gaps in the opposition defence and he also has a terribel pass accuracy and also no dribbling skills
    I think in his absence we had very good performance against everton and watford

    1. Had a dream about the title being on the line in the last match and chelsea letting leicester to beat them to clinch the title over arsenal
      Am I the only arsenal fan still having a hope to win it
      Tomorrow leicester game against southampton is very critical
      A draw or a loss will make them panic
      They are not barcelona at the end and 6 or 5 points lead in remaining 6 matches is reachable (if they draw or lose tomorrow)
      COYG

      1. Southampton is a strange side. On their day they can trash any team out there, but in the next game, they fall to a surprising defeat. Wonder which Southampton turns up tomorrow 😀

    2. at the start of the season i couldnt imagine that our #1 team would not have giroud, ramsey, mert, ox and theo. amazing. thats 5 key players. we also went thru a v.rough patch when nobody was in form but i fear that that was when we had to stand up and be counted. now the pressure is a bit less so we can play more freely. however, if we win a few , we’ll experience again intense pressure.

      1. the team as it is now is the one most at justarsenal have been clamoring for:
        mert -> gabriel,
        arteta/flam -> coq [prof’s fault for not getting a sub for coq]
        ramsey -> elneny [since we bought elneny]
        giroud -> welbeck
        walcott -> iwobi [since walcott decided not to show up anymore]
        the gabriel/coq/elneny spine is quite strong, mobile and fast.
        up front, iwobi/sanchez are causing problems , & i hope welbeck can find form too.

  3. Siphon Stan is the major problem at the club. Now that we are winning, and look set to finish up in 3rd place, I guess the critics will fall silent, and the Siphon will once again siphon 3.5 million from the Arsenal coffers for his ‘invaluable’ advice. The only thing that he’s done is fill the board with non-footballing people, so Arsene Wenger has no critics, and has told Wenger to sell some of our best players, for which there is evidence. We would be better off both monetarily, and in the league without his advice.

    It is fantastic that we are back to winning ways, and Messrs Iwobi and Welbeck have dug us out of a goal drought, and inspired everyone else, but with Siphon Stan in charge, we will always have a glass ceiling through which it will be more difficult to break through, than if he wasn’t there.

  4. Unless there are injuries Wenger will be nuts to start Theo and Oliver

    Right Iwobi, Alexis, Ozil and Welbeck are in form.

    If Alexis is out of next match I would use Campbell
    Or put Welbeck on wing and Giroud up front

    But if Alexis is okay, use the same team against West Ham.

  5. Difficult to pick a MOTM for a game like this. Iwobi stood out but the play of Ozil was often absolutely mesmerizing. I almost felt sorry for the Watford defenders. Too many good Arsenal performances to mention. I can’t think of a player for Arsenal who did not play well.

  6. If we can keep starting the same starting 11 for the next 7 games, I’m confident in saying that we can score 2 goals per game for the next 7 matches.

  7. Great work from Joel to create the assists for Walcott. Unfortunately for him I don’t think he will get game time because of Wenger’s favourite 4. You know who they are, 2 of them are on the bench right now, but come next season they will be in the first team by default. The other 2 are out injured and will return soon.

    1. HA559: maybe i’m just asking for my dream to get crushed but hoping he can see elneny is better than ramsey, gab than mert, iwobi than walcott and welbeck than giroud. if any of these lose form, then fair enough we can have the old ones back. but if wenger puts the old ones back just bec he likes them, well then that’d be another classic wenger act of self defeat.

      1. Oh it seems I forgot Wenger’s 5th favourite, Ox Chamberlain.
        Wenger does the same thing every season. Play with favourites, (it’s okay when they’re in form) then when fighting for top four favourites are pushed aside to secure top four, although it seems this year he seems to be doing it for the 5% chance we still have to win the title. Following season, favourite players return to first team by default.

        Welbeck > Giroud
        Iwobi/Joel > Ox/Walcott
        Elneny/Cazorla > Ramsey/Wilshere

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