‘There is no reason to panic’ is what the Arsenal boss said in his comments after watching the Gunners pegged back to a 2-2 draw in the crucial Champions League home tie against PSG last night. Well I am sorry Mister Wenger but I have to disagree with your words reported by Arsenal.com and not because the result means that we are almost certainly going to be in the runners up pot for the 7th year in a row when the knockout draw is made.
He said, “We have not lost, but we have lost a winning momentum a little bit, yes. But we played against a good team tonight as well.
“I believe that I have to be careful about the choice of my words because when I say ‘stuttering’ it comes back in the next press conference. Look, I think there is a special spirit in the squad and the consistency of the results… we are unbeaten for 18 games. Sometimes you go through a spell, when you have such a long momentum, where we win a bit less. It’s down to us to continue without losing a game but as well to transform the draws now into wins. But there is no reason to panic.”
The problem for me is not that we let a lead slip against the French champions, even though it was a very soft goal that you could say was a bit unlucky. The fact is that Arsenal were lucky to be in the lead in the first place as PSG were the better team and if anyone deserved to win it was them.
If it had not been for the wastefulness of their centre forward Edinson Cavani yet again we would have got what our poor performance deserved and it is the nature of our recent games that has me more worried than the six points dropped in the last three games.
What happened to the swashbuckling Arsenal who swept Chelsea aside? We are not so much playing with the handbrake on but with a dirty great anchor strapped to our back and it is beginning to look like the same old Arsenal no matter how many times the manager talks about a special spirit. Panic? A little bit yes, because poor performances and draws do not win you a Premier League title.
D.N.
Yes we do.
We put in zero effort these days in
games.
We are only waiting fpr the time our opponents to make errors for us to punish them.
We need to start winning and it will take us a great deal of improvement for us to start producing them
previous seasons we would of lost that game and the one in Paris, i have to agree with AW on this one because we at Arsenal play precision passing game and when ever we have international football it takes us one or two weeks to get back to normal play
I am sorry Tas, nothing personal, but that statement lack ambition. With all the international breaks we have in modern football, if it is reasonable not expect a result for the two weeks following it seems quite hard to win anything.
Besides all teams deal with international football. PSG had to deal with an international break as well and they played and passed us of the pitch.
Nothing has changed. Manager, results, fans.
We were playing quite well in a few games earlier this season, as I remember it most of these games included a speedy attack with Iwobi, Ozil and Walcott playing behind a free roaming Sanchez as central striker.
Then Wenger brought back Ramsey and last night even started Giroud and Ramsey. We are back to being the slow starting, slow playing team we were last season when we drifted away from the top of the PL to finish a lucky 2nd after Spurs collapsed once they could no longer win the PL. We fall behind, we pick up the urgency. We take the lead, we give it away. All too familiar.
The games we played well this year involved the whole team harassing the opponent when they had the ball, now we are back to giving the opponents all the time and space they need to get comfortable.
This team simply seems incapable of turning up for 90 minutes. Of course, it frustrating that we all knew November could be the month we put a marker down as a team to be taken seriously and failed to do so. If we are honest with ourselves we were lucky to get draws against Spurs Man U and PSG.
But to me it is more frustrating (than the disappointing results) that we can not play with any intensity or passion for 90 minutes. Form comes and goes but there is no excuse for effort and intensity to go out the door. IMO Leicester showed last season what this squad failed to realize, they showed up every game for 90 minutes of maximum effort. It seems we have not learned our lesson.
Finally, can anyone please tell me what the point is of buying Xhaka for a boat load of money if you start Ramsey as DM in a game like last night. Ramsey doesn’t have the discipline or intelligence to play DM, he was always out of position last night when PSG were coming at us. I have to believe Xhaka is the better DM. At an absolute minimum bring Xhaka in when we are winning 2-1 to give some support to an unconvincing back 4.
PS it is scary when Wenger implies we should not expect to beat good teams. No wonder we have a weak mentality.
“We have not lost, but we have lost a winning momentum a little bit, yes. But we played against a good team tonight as well.”
Yep I’m starting to wonder exactly what Ramsey brings to the table in terms of actually creating and scoring goals. We all know he is a hard worker, but I also feel his style of play doesn’t suit us anymore. He would be the type of player to bring on when we are a goal or two up to work the midfield and retain possession. But this slow build up play goes completely against the strength of the majority of our attackers – speed. We cannot utilize Walcott, Chamberlain, Sanchez, and others effectively if we have one or two players who hold onto the ball too long.
Big gun, completely agree with your assessment. Playing slow makes us an average team.
I makes Ozil less effective, it makes Sanchez less effective, in the process reducing our two best weapons, and it makes us easier to defend against and to attack against.
Giroud and Ramsey are not starters any longer given the depth of the quad.
Bar the Chelsea game, the performances in the so called “big games” have been just awful, and yet we haven’t lost. I wonder if Arsenal are the luckiest team around at the moment, because we should have lost the last three, including other games as well, yet we STILL remain unbeaten since the opening day in all competitions. PSG probably cannot believe they haven’t beaten us in both games. Cavani should have had a couple of hat-tricks against us, at the very least!
Another question has to be, what was the point of the Xhaka signing? If he can’t get a start with Cazorla injured, Elneny not offering anything, and Ramsey looking like a Sunday league player, then when will he start? Pointless signing, especially considering how badly we need a top quality winger, and striker. Why not have put the £35 million into one of those two positions? Really poor management in not dropping Ramsey, and it’s no surprise we’ve looked poor with him back from injury.
Thank you!!!!!! Spot on.
We will all turn on Sanchez when he leaves this summer but we will have forgotten that we all knew we needed top striker but instead got Perez who Wenger doesn’t rate. Sanchez is ambitious, if he leaves it is not because he doesn’t like London, it is because his ambition is not met at Arsenal.
Did you see Sanchez could not even be bothered to congratulate Giroud on his goal? Sanchez creates it and Giroud celebrates as if he did and doesn’t even acknowledge Sanchez.
Sanchez will leave this summer and we will fail to attract a similar quality replacement.
Yeah, I don’t understand why Sanchez was the first to leap on Olivier’s back a few days ago when he leveled us against MU.
I also don’t know why Santi fisted the air after he scored a penalty earlier in the year that Olivier drew in stoppage time to give us all three points.
And watching Ramsey yesterday, was like having Arteta back. Almost every pass was backwards or sideways, and the odd time he actually made a forward pass, he spent so long on the ball that by the time he passed, the receiving player was man-marked, thus losing possession immediately. He slows our entire game down, and losses possession constantly. How can Wenger not see this, when it’s so obvious!
As Ramsey has become Arteta 2.0, his new name should be Ramteta.
I love it Ramteta.
If you count Basel as a serious team, and that can be an optimistic assessment, we have not beaten a serious team since September 28. Yet some still think we can win the PL.
I think the panic wenger is referring to is champions league position related only.
This is based on the fact, that finishing 2nd rather than top of the group, this time round might actually leave us in a better situation.
As for the rest, let’s look at the other facts. We have lost only 1 of our last 33 matches in all competitions, including the summer friendlies. That was by the odd goal in a 7 goal bizarre match against Liverpool.
Whilst I accept that 3 draws in November might not be great, you need once again to look at how poor we usually do in November and again look at the opposition. Spuds, psg and man United are not the weakest opposition and the fact we managed to get 3 draws from matches we deserved nothing from is testament to our injury ravaged squad.
As for Ramsey, he is still off the pace, as is jenkinson. Alexis, Walcott and Xhaka are obviously struggling at the moment, whilst ozil, mustafi and koscielny all look like they need a breather.
Wenger really loves Ramsey. He sees something in him that we can’t. Xhaka and Cazorla are better than him in my opinion and he certainly should not start on the right over Theo, Ox.
Jenkinson has to start because of bellerin injury but Ramsey and Eleney should not start. They haven’t earned it yet.
For next match, we should start Coquelin and Xhaka at the back and Ozil, Iwobi Walcott/Ox and Alexis /Giroud
Madness on the site again. Arsenal are three points behind log leaders in EPL, in the quarter final of the Capital One Cup, Joint top in champions league though second on away goals’ rule, never lost a game since the start of the season. If you are worry-philic go support Man United because they deliver disappointment big time at least once in two weeks.