The Arsenal defence had just one job – The worst possible result for Arsenal….

I think we could all tell from Arsene Wenger’s remarks that he was extyremely disappointed after Arsenal’s unbelievable draw with Atletico, where our defence gifted Antoine Griezmann an equaliser very close to the end of a game that we completely dominated.

The Boss said: “We produced a performance we wanted to produce, but the result is not in line with the performance. Against a team who defends well, we have not to give any chances away. Once we were 1-0 up, the task was clear for us: not to be caught on a long ball. They could not combine enough to come out and create a chance. The only chance they could have was on a long ball. We were a bit unlucky on the goal, because it was a foul on Welbeck.

“But we can only look at ourselves on tonight’s result because 1-0 is a perfect result at home. It was down to us after that not to make a mistake. We had 20 shots on goal, we have seen that against Manchester United, where we had 33 shots on goal and lost the game. It’s a story we’ve seen before.”

It certainly is the story of the season, and it looks like we have been undone again by our wastefulness in front of goal, and the seemingly inevitable defensive errors that seem to happen far too frequently in this campaign. Wenger went even further when quoted in the Mirror saying that he found the final score unbelievable. “Yes but I think looking at the performance we had and the way the game went it was the worst possible result for us.

“But we have to go there in a positive mood and qualify over there.

“Unfortunately we gave a goal away from nowhere and we have to recover from the disappointment in time for the next one.”

Next up is Man United on Sunday, and I wonder if Wenger will rotate to make sure he has a fresh team for next Thursday? Or will he risk losing yet another away game in this woeful season?

Darren N

29 Comments

    1. Oh dear… so it’s Wengers fault again that Koz has a brain fade , the ball ricocheted off Ospina straight back to Griezmann and Mustafi slipped.. yes of course that’s exactly what Wenger teaches them in training!

  1. They should be ashamed really comedic and rudderless. If not kos organising then why not mustafi sniffing the danger.
    I guess they figured between the Gk abd 3 defenders they could manage him but clearly not.
    Why risk it we do it all the time, drives me mad!!

    Ot and people may react negatively but did we put a buy back clause in Gnabrys Hofenheim sale?
    The guy is a beast now 4 in 4 consecutive games and I’ve just seen the wonder lob he scored.
    I always liked him as a player, similar player to Ox.

    1. We sold him to Werder Bremen, who subsequently sold him to Bayern Munich and loaned him out to Hoffenheim, so no, is the answer to you question.

  2. We have to go and give it our all in Madrid. What’s the point in putting out our strongest line up against United, win it we get nothing, lose it we get nothing, play the second string team along with Auba, the Madrid game is all that matters at the moment.

  3. The defence has been a problem for many a season.Years ago when asked about
    the appointment of a defence,he dismissed condescendingly.He said he had more
    than 30 years coaching.
    How arrogant. As some fans have said he shd have been axed years ago.Repeated
    big game losses have exposed his shortcomings.Even if the gunners were
    to make it to the cl,I still believe they are there to make up the nos.

    1. Wenger used to think putting himself close to kroenke and making money for him every season for selling players and not buying to improve the team was a guarantee to have a job at Arsenal for life – i really hope what was said today in some newspaper about changes Enriqe intends to bring in if he takes over with the exception of Auba and Laca the rest dont have assuarance to stay at arsenal we need atleast half of the squad gone after the season is over

      Nabir fekir, Kerem Dermaby, meyer max, Fabnho, new goal keeper, even Iniesta will have two good years on him etc and i think Sven should be able to take care that since he knows germany market very well

  4. 1-1 is a good result.
    It is now just one game.
    Difficult for Wenger to rest
    players v his Nemesis Mou at Utd.
    But its the Athletico game which counts.
    So can see Ozil Laca Bellerin Koz Ramsey Wilshere Mustafi all rested.
    Cech
    Niles Chambers Holding Kolasinac
    Elneny Xhaka
    Wellbeck Mkhitaryan Iwobi
    Auba
    Bench Ospina Mavropanos Nelson Willock Nketiah Da Silva.

        1. True, he should have 60 minutes of pre training against Man U then feature completely in Madrid

  5. Ozziegunner , Saw the scorpion kick by McGree ( No 27). Brilliant, even better than Giroud’s. leaving the keeper standing summed it up.

    1. Kenny, glad you enjoyed. McGree had a very sound all round game and is quite a good prospect at 19.
      Newcastle NSW has produced some great footballers, including Liverpool star Craig Johnston. My children went to the same primary school, although years after (a signed Liverpool FC shirt hangs in the School). Craig left Liverpool at the top and returned home to share the last years of his sister’s life, who subsequently died of cancer. Also of note was Ray Baartz, who was contracted to Manchester United; Matt Busby was greatly upset when he returned to Newcastle due to home sickness. A centre forward he would have been the first player picked in Australia’s World Cup team in Germany 1974; his career was cut short by a brutal rabbit chop to the throat from a Uruguayan player in a preliminary game. We all know what Sir Alf Ramsey said about them.

  6. People keep banging on about our defence, and rightly so, but why is our attacking play escaping such criticism? We had an extra man for around 85 minutes, created a bucket load of chances, and only scored one! The goal we conceded should have been irrelevant, because we should have had around 4/5 goals by then, just like what Liverpool did to Roma.

    1. I have to disagree with you on this
      1. Always harder to play against 10 men then 11 and as especially with a team like AM.
      Well drilled. Compact and a die hard attitude of thou shall not pass. A manger who has drilled them on how to defend
      We should have kept it wide and stretch them but kept trying to thread a ball through a eye of a needle.
      As for the defence
      They play 1 up top and we try to play a high line and get caught with a ball over the top. How many times have we seen that same old play against us over the years
      Kos tries to step up and play off side blind and gets caught. You can’t legislate for a dumb act like that.
      I can see us scoring again over there but can also see us conceding
      I will settle for a nervy 2-2
      One more roll of the dice for glory
      Ps
      For everyone still moaning about AW
      The man is going in a few games. Lets put the slagging off to one side and get behind the team for the last couple of games. We can all see the flaws in the team and nothing will change for the last few games
      New man in and sweeping changes to be made…yiiiippppeee
      Let’s kiss the badge and love the team

  7. Wenger can’t leave soon enough! If the board had any ambition they’d offer Simeone the world to take over from the decrepit old fool. If this frugal 50 mil warchest is actually true, then Diego is the man we need to make the most of our shocking squad situation. 90% if them need to go.

    Respect to all the fans who protested with your feet, you did it. You hit Stan in the pocket and forced his hand. The only way it would have happened. COYG! – new era is dawning. Very excited!

  8. I think the Atletico goal has clearly shown Wenger that he didn’t manage his defensive problem to the required level for a long time and that is why he is paying the price up to forcing to resign. We, the fan said it so many times that both the back side and central defensive areas are highly exposed to mistakes and need to be bolstered with the right quality players. He kept quite and punished for that reason. He is the enemy of his success and the fans for no reason.

  9. In all honesty the defence bears the least responsibility for the draw. I think most of the blame should lie with the strike force. How can you have all those chances and fail to convert at least 3 of them. If we had taken our chances Griezman’s goal would have been irrelevant. We can’t always parrot defensive weaknesses when the main problem is converting our chances. If we were clinical all these regrets wouldn’t be there. Football is about goals. Atletico had very few chances and converted one and now we are talking about defensive errors. Is that logical? The problem was not the defence or midfield but our forwards who can’t score. Perhaps they need to practise scoring goals before Thursday’s game. If need be let them hire Thierry Henry to give some tips about scoring goals against teams which pack the bus.

    1. Can anybody please identify which goal attempt was an easy clear miss?
      However I did see a number of great saves by the goal keeper Jan Oblak.

      1. Welbeck, when he just practically passed to Oblak with much of the goal to curve the ball into
        Lacazette, not being aware of being in enough space to control the square-play from Welbeck and just hit a more accurate shot at the goal.

        1. I note your examples, but still can’t accept that either was an “easy clear miss” (curving a shot or being aware to take more time in a crowded penalty area).

  10. Our lineup with manu should be as follows, ; chec,holding, colas, BMG,mustafi, iwobi, chambers, xhaka, niles, Abu, and welback. Of cause some of our first team players to come in the last minutes because all our focus should be Thursday’s match.

  11. I do not blame our attack for being wasteful, I applaud Oblak for a MOTM performance and kept AM in the game, remember when we had Seaman who could do that for us?

    Anyone who thought we would keep a clean sheet was being very optimistic, even against a 10 man AM, we do not have the water tight def to do so.

    A top TOP GK can make a massive difference and for me Oblak was outstanding, we could have won that by a few goals even though we conceded if they had Ospina in goal. I do believe that if we had the other teams GK then we would have won that 3 or 4 nill. That was how good Oblak was in that game.

    1. Like I mentioned earlier let’s not blame the defence unfairly unless you expected Atletico to come and just defend. There is no team in the world which doesn’t concede goals no matter how good the defence is. I would have blamed our defence if we had conceded more goals. There are a lot of shortcomings in our attack such as poor positioning for set pieces,, not pressing the opposition defence strongly enough, not showing enough desire and aggression in the opposition penalty area, firing weak shots at the opposition keeper etc. We also have other problems such as the departure of Giroud which deprived us of strong aerial threat, the injury of Mkhitaryan and the ineligibility of our strongest striker Aubameyang. However our team is still capable of defeating Atletico if they go with determination and good organisation.

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