Hull City have been making an honest attempt to escape the relegation zone, but they were unlucky to meet a Arsenal team in devastating form in last night’s clash at the KC Stadium. Alexis Sanchez’s two goals and Aaron Ramsey’s strike put Arsenal comfortably into a 3-0 lead at the break, and the second half was played out at a sedentary pace.
Arsene Wenger was understandably pleased after the match: “We set ourselves the target to continue our run but also to continue to make progress as a team, because we feel we have made progress during the season. Tonight was a demonstration that we can improve and that we can keep the quality very high. We played the kind of football we love to play and we played it for long periods of the game with the quality we desire.
“The surprising thing of the night is that we scored the goal that we didn’t necessarily deserve to score and we missed the chances we should have scored.
“Before the game I thought that it would be a very difficult game. We certainly had a few turning points – the fact that we scored first, the fact that our defenders were calm on the ball and that we could always dictate our technical level. Never were we under real pressure. We got out of tight situations with good technical skills and that took the pressure off our team, and we always looked like we could create something with the speedy movement of our players.”
We are now eleven games unbeaten, and with a five point gap down to Manchester United and a game in hand over City, it looks like we only have to avoid defeat at Old Trafford to secure second place. Is Wenger happy with that? “Yes, for me, yes. We want to finish as high as you can. Our competitive attitude is to finish looking at ourselves thinking that we have given the maximum until the last day – that’s what it is about. It will be tight. Tonight we only secured top four but let’s see if we can maintain the run and the quality.”
And of course the reporters just had to ask Le Prof if he thought the Gunners could go on to win next seasons’s title? “Ask me that question in August.” he replied. “Give me a little breather until August. What is at stake now is to finish the season well. If we maintain our run then we will finish second and we still have the FA Cup final – we will see where we are after that.
“We gave absolutely everything to come back into it and there were a few turning points. The first one was us not starting the season well and the second was maybe the QPR game where Chelsea never had any doubt in their mind. Sometimes when you go for the title and you win these types of games, it convinces you that it is your year. Chelsea didn’t drop points at QPR or against Manchester United – they were very consistent and only lost two games.
“We need to continue to win our games like we’re doing now. I’m not a prophet. That is unpredictable and nobody knows how strong the team will be at the start of the season. What’s important is that you go out of the season by thinking we have made progress, we have moved forward and that the confidence is high. We need to start strong again next year. Who will be there fighting for the championship next season? It’s difficult to know.”
All we want now is to keep the run going, pick up the FA Cup again, and start next season the way we are finishing this one. In style!
So who was MOTM
Alexis
Ramsey
Carzola
Take your pick. The boys played well even the subs. The Swan’s with there equally good form will be an interesting match.
Rambo for me was man of the match. because he was out of position. If other players were there we would have been blaming the manager for ruinning them. Rambo just goes to the pitch and does the job The most difficult thing in football is to score goals and on those basis he is our most important and complete midfielder.
ramsey has 4 lungs and covers loads of grounds.
defensively his is a beast.
His work rate is consuming.
he gave the pass of the match to sanchez
he had the lungs to get to the box and score a goal.
Finally he was out of position.
See you can’t criticise a team when they play well . I still feel when we play the tough games and play Rambo wide we are wasting his talent. ramsey deserves to be in the middle. Why because he is our best Box to Box player. Most of out counter attacks were wasted bescause we had no pace. Only alexis has a high acceleration in that frontline. we breaked with Ozil 3 times and there were no runners.
We need to utilise our width alot much better. If Bellerini didnt have pace the RW would have been a total waste. We are guaranteed top 3 and lets now give Theo a chance.
Also believe Rambo was awesome-gets himself in great positions….have to give credit to Belerin too, who’s able to cover RB and RW positions, thus allowing Rambo the freedom to play more centrally.
Okay Let’s get it straight….. Even the so called world class Cech (which many wants at arsenal) wouldn’t have been able to save that hull’s goal…. Did u lot see world class bayern’s manuel Neuer against bayer leverkusen last week?….pathetic!…… Ospina is our No.1 … Hate it or Love it
GLad RAMSEY came out of that match against hull un-injured…. It could have been painful
Giroud is slowly but steadly going back 2the we were used to, jack started from where he had ended; running with the ball with no ambition at all no wonder once he came on they started attacking us n we failed to score.
AS17 WAS BY A DISTANCE THE PLAYER OF THE MATCH he actually played both his and girouds roles.
If that’s truly what you saw just stop commenting
I am usually the first person to moan about Wilshere running down blind alleys but yesterday he was fantastic with the ball.
If there is one thing I want for next year it is honestly only to have the OX fighting fit and playing week in week out. In my opinion he is one of our best players with out doubt, he just needs to improve his final ball and BANG we have another Alexis Sanchez on the other wing
@RWRW
The statistics don’t lie. Our best performances have been United and City away. On both games we had Ox and sanchez on the wings. That for me is the perfect and most balance arsenal team. We have pace and width and can turn defence to attack at will. But Ox cannot play 3 games without a hamstring. the medical people need to sort that out. Its been happing to long now.
The problem is that who do you drop between Rambo Cazorla and Ozil? because playing rambo on the right is not a longterm solution. I know most fans will drop rambo because he didn’t cost £42 million. Anyways i know he is our best and most complete midfielder. If we have an midfielder that is worth £45 to 60 million in the present market is Rambo. fans don’t just get his brilliance.
“The problem is that who do you drop between Rambo Cazorla and Ozil?” LOL – I wonder how many managers would like that “problem”. Us Gooners have spent years angsting about putting out a decent team now we are fretting about who to drop.
Ox is my favourite Arsenal player so no axe to grind here. He often looks spectacular but AR playing “out of position” has scored and assisted more in the last 6 games than Ox has in his previous 30. It is very difficult to avoid this unfortunate fact. As you say what he needs is continuous involvement in the team unhampered with injury and may be his “break out” season is near.
So after watching such a performance ‘ thats all you can come up with. Jack has not played for 5 months and look at how sharp he was. Giroud has not scored in a few games and suddenly he is not good. fans like you are the reason people say arsenal fans are pathetic. You will complain even if we buy Messi.
The witch hunt on Jack Rambo and Giroud has started. No matter what these 3 players do some people will always have a bad thing to say about them. Some of us need to be ashamed. You have fans who celebrate the injuries of players. You act like one of them.
Giroud was fine. He was consistently being fouled throughout the match and the referee was abysmal for him. He did nothing wrong and didn’t get the service to score himself. Hush up.
Wilsere came on and we only didn’t score due to a hatful of poor final balls and missed shots. His running was great even if his decision making was poor on a couple of occasions. They scored before he came on and didn’t get a sniff while he was on the pitch. You clearly watched the wrong game.
Alexis was outstanding though still had faults in the game. I wouldn’t say he was comfortably MOTM because we had plenty of talent on show.
most fans are very critical of JW’s every move…he just came back from a long injury…showed some liveliness, created a free kick in a very dangerous position and should’ve scored had it not been for the hand ball…
I couldn’t have said it better. To have fans angry that players are back in the squad is a disgrace. I saw people on this forum celebrating the injuries of rambo and jack. Even when giroud’s injury was announced after everton people were celebrating on this forum.
Just be happy that Jack is back and is in the squad. he is available to the manager to help the team if needs be. Its better to have Jack on the bench than have him in the Physio room.
Like i said above I don’t understand why Jack Giroud and Rambo are so hated by some fans on this forum. Rambo carried arsenal on his back all season and won us our 1st trophy in 10 years and the fans still slaughtered him. Its unbelievable.
Spot on – the old adage about you are only as good as your last game is one held dearly by loads of Gooners. That, coupled with short-term memory failures make us the most fickle of fans. A year ago there wasn’t a single Gooner in the world that would have sold Ramsey for less than £50M and a month in to the next season he is disposable and useless. 7 goals+assists in his last 6 games suggest he is back. Jack has a harder job because for one reason or another he has never been able to string together even half a season of solid accomplishment – just short bursts of promise.
Wenger is right our goal was never really threatened, besides aluko’s chance and the goal that should’ve been disallowed they didn’t have any chances.
Also I’ve noticed teams don’t try to attack us through the middle as much since we’ve got le coq the pitbull snapping at there heels. He’s made a world of difference were gonna need him to be in top form for the FA cup final.
Its a strange situation
with little to play for.
Chelsea won the league
by January may be December.
Then all the English teams dropped
out of the ECL early.
Only Liverpool and Arsenal made the
FA cup semis. The season might
as well have ended in mid March.
All that’s left is the FA cup final and
to give Flamini Diaby and Rosicky
some farewell minutes on the field.
I will give Mozart more than farewell minutes. he is 35 and if indeed he is leaving lets give the Man a testimonial. the last one we had at the emirates was Dennis B 10. I think Rosisky is our most senior player and stayed with us for so long. he epitomised the way Arsenal should play and off the pitch he is class.
Flamini on the other hand should just go. When we needed him he left us in the first place and signed for milan. the man surely loves a free transfer. He came back to Arsenal free and will be gone free. lol
Highlight of the match for me, was Kos”Da Boss” puttin Meyler in fkn his place for that dodgy ass’d tackle…
PRICELESS…