Chelsea have been League leaders right from the start of the season, and they have maintained their lead with some dour defending and fast counter-attacks. Meanwhile Arsenal have improved by leaps and bounds since Xmas to worry the Chelsea fans in the run-in.
But now, after yesterdays 0-0 draw at the Emirates, Wenger reluctantly agreed that Chelsea deserve the crown this season. “They are not champions yet but they will be, and you get what you deserve. They started the season strong and they made the difference in the first half of the season compared to us.”
“We have closed the gap since the start of the season. What happened is that they had the experience at the back, they could close the game down. We lacked freedom of mind today. Maybe we were too conscious of their counter-attacking and didn’t play with enough freedom in the final third. We made some wrong decisions.”
“We were disappointed because we wanted to win but we didn’t manage to score.
“I think we did enough to win the game today and Chelsea defended well. I felt that we played with the right intensity in the first half. We dropped that in the second half and came back to the right level in the last 20 minutes. We could have finished the game off. Ozil had a good chance in the final minute of the game but they came to defend well, did it well and everybody knows that.”
Much has been made of Wenger’s awful record against Mourinho, and Le Prof was asked if that may have affected the Gunners play. Wenger surmised: “It’s always difficult to know that straight away after the game. In the dangerous situations we created in the first half, what we usually do – the decisions are quick and sharp – and today the decisions in the final ball were not always right. All the build-up was very good, very quick, but the final ball wasn’t there.
“We want to finish this season well and when you look at the other results – I watched Aston Villa against Manchester City, and today Manchester United – every game is difficult. We need to absolutely keep focused until the end of the game, and then we can see what we can do next season. Let’s finish well. We have a strong end now. We go to Hull and then we want to secure top four before the FA Cup final because that battle is not done yet. After that, we can look at the top three or the top two. It’s all to do now.”
A draw was not so bad for us and we are still hot favourites to finish second, but as Wenger said “The battle is not done yet”. We have to maintain our unbeaten run, win the FA Cup again, and hope we can start next season with a fully fit squad and a believe that we can compete on equal terms with Chelsea….
Well we have to move on Now to secure second place and the Fa Cup,Mourinho had the guts to say Boring is not winning a Title in 10 years Hmmmm
Had the guts to say it because we’ve not got much of an answer to it, so however smarmy and up himself he is he actually bitchslapped us quite hard there.
Toolbag Mourinho aside let’s focus on us, enough of the “we want to be here there etc” lets shut our mouths, do some savvy transfer deals, and SHOW next season that we’re the real deal in this title race.
@ Champion charlie
Our priority for next season should be the fight against muscle injuries. We shall never win the league till we fix that. Ozil has missed 7 months of football in 2 seasons since he was signed. Why does OX and Rambo always have muscle injuries? Boss and Gibbs always get injured too. Jack is a regular Customer. Even Giroud the strong lad was out for about 3 – 4 months. I am sorry but its impossible to win the league with these type of statistics.
Pep gaudiola after just 1 season complained about the medical staff. the dr even had to quit. Why can’t Arsene Complain as well ? what is the real problem behind all this injuries ?
If you look at Physio Room at the start of the season till March we were top of the table and champion of injuries. How many games did cesc play for chelsea? If he was at Arsenal I can bet he would have been out for 3 months.
Yes the transfer window could make us better but what good are they if all our players are in the treatment room? Am surprised Sanchez managed to be fit all year. I am really surprised he had no 3 months injury.
the only way we can challenge Chelsea is keeping our squad fit. I rather have this players on the bench or in the stands than to have them in the medical chambers.
Just thinking on what you said of Sanchez.. remember when he arrived he was huge, built like a brick wall. He is still very strong but he got himself in excellent condition even before preseason. That could be a problem, we may have too many players who do nothing but soak rays and party during off time (jack poldi party) when they are supposed to be keeping up with light fitness exercises.
Mourinho says it, because he is a showman. He went on to a football show to discuss referees. Not very professional if you ask me. He plays his own games. He can say what he likes, but Arsenal is everything but Boring. Titleless but not boring. Getting affected by that coming off the mouth of a manager who took the word beautiful out of football is just not worth it.
Other than that. We have a lot of work to do in the summer. We need a bit more quality. Ozil was fantastic. So was Ramsey. If we can get another few of those players Barca and Real throw away, we might be contenders next year. But don’t get me wrong, theres a lot of work to be done. A LOT.
Sure give Allerdyce or Pulis the che hot seat and couple of billion and they would be very similar to how they are playing now, stoke was our dreaded fixture now it is che once more.
not good enough…every season we say the same shit…close the gap and etc….
we still need to spend and strengthen the team….
3 to 4 players minimum are required
Truth is we dont need 3 to 4 players its a More a mental issue the players need to maintain their focus Throughout the season of course every big team needs to strengthen no doubt but this players have the quality to Do something special we just need that extra bit of belief that we can do it,Last summer it was a fitness coach we signed this summer we should look out for a top Psychologist,cause which ever player joins no matter how big the player is if the environment you are playing in dont have the belief youve got,you either over work yourself or you drop into the same mindset,Yes we do need to strengthen no we dont need 3-4 players
@Brianu. To be honest we made some progressed this season. Especially from a tactical point of view. To finish 2nd and win and FA cup now looks like a shit season to most fans. When was the last time that happened? Its not as If am settling for 2nd position but am saying that we are caught up with the Manchester clubs and Chelsea. And we have left Spurs. A few years ago the press was talking about the Gap between Spurs and Arsenal. Not anymore. Now I feel like we are in the mixed with the very best teams in England.
We have improved and with the right additions we can have a good start and maintain that form all season.
Exactly HR you used to come out with some real rubbish, but nowadays you seem much more informed. Just like Arsenal you have improved, but it is still not enough. We Have 10-11 players that could be improved upon and at least 7 players need to go (either on loan or permanently) if we are to make a signing. Come July we will have 32 players born 1993 or before so 7 of these won’t be involved.
Ospina, Szczesney, martinez
Debuchy, jenkinson mertesacker, Gabriel, koscielny, ajayi, monreal, gibbs
Arteta, flamini, Ramsey, wilshire, rosicky, Ramsey, diaby, galindo, cazorla, ozil, chamberlain, coquelin
Walcott, welbeck, campbell, ryo, giroud, alexis, podolski, sanogo, wellington
For me a better keeper than Szczesney needs to come in. Cech?
Ajayi, jenkinson and debuchy should be sold and one left footed defender should be purchased, Laporte?
Galindo, diaby, flamini, arteta and rosicky should all be shown the door, with 2 top midfielders coming in kondogbia and schneirderlin?
Campbell, ryo, podolski and sanogo should all miss the cut, with a left winger and a striker replacing them, reus and lacazette?
That’s it for me 13 out and 6 in. Giving us 25 players born 1993 or before. Along with some decent players born 1994 or later, bellerin, chambers, hayden, gnabry, bielik, zelalem, akpom
@ Atid
U want a keeper a leftfoot CB 2 midfielders a LW and a Striker. That is 6 new additions to the team. So we gel again in December and come out 4th next season. 6 new players in one window will unbalance the squad. There is no sense in that. Not after last summer.
@atid.
Podolski Rosicky Ryo Arteta
Campbell contract till 2016.
Sanogo till 2017.
Only Flamini and Diaby are out
of contract this summer I think .
Might be hard to get players to
leave considering the money their on.
Wenger will try to get Diaby on the field
even if its for just 15 minutes to give
him another contract.
Might be only Flamini leaving.
@Davidnz
I really don’t care howmuch certain players are on. This is the best season to kick the out. Podolski is on 100k and he is a must go scenario. That money could be fred up for another player. You have the Euros and if podolski want to play for Germany he will need games. He wont get that at Arsenal unfortunately.
RYo not good enough
Sanogo is not good enough.
Flamini has passed it
Arteta needs to go. Can’t have a captain on the bench. he understand that.
Diaby we have tried with him and his injuries .
Cambell could be sold and loads of club will be willling to pay.
This is about 400K a week in wages been fred up. This guys really don’t contribute to anything. So we might as well just say BYE BYE.
@galen.
I would like to see many
go too but as I said most
of them have contracts beyond this summer.
To me, this has probably been our most versatile, talented squad in years. I believe we can beat any team, but our problem is that we play too modest. Like yesterday, we didn’t show any urgency until stoppage time ffs. What kind of nonsense is that?
You have teams like Atleti last year and Dortmund a couple years prior winning titles because they gave it their all – 110% and nothing less. We have the talent, but we’re not gonna go far if we don’t utilize our potential for the entire 90. And signing 3-4 big named players doesn’t guarantee that our form is magically gonna change.. i.e Man U, Liverpool, Inter, Everton. Being in 2nd/3rd place is pretty decent for the way we started this season. The talent is there, but not always the effort.
You are right. But I feel Sanchez has changed the way we play. When one player presses constantly the others start feeling Guilty and you can see the difference from September. Ox is now our best RW pressing and defending. Even ozil is putting in a lot much effort. It takes time but i feel we are getting there.
Time for a change….we need a new manager….
Admin can you not just do us all a favour and ban hafix his comments are always childish and pathetic and clearly know zero about football all his comments get thumbed down so much they get removed so would it not just make it easier to ban him it will be heaven not having to look at at his stupid comments so please admin hit the ban button on him!!!
Sighhhhhhhhhhhh. Another long sigh.
Don’t mind me, still bitter about yesterday’s game.
But alas, what is done is done. Let’s just take what we can still compete for (FA Cup, 2nd) and make the best out of it. Hopefully it’ll carry on to next season. And maybe just maybe, we’ll get two shots on target against Chelsea.
Truth is we dont need 3 to 4 players its a More a mental issue the players need to maintain their focus Throughout the season of course every big team needs to strengthen no doubt but this players have the quality to Do something special we just need that extra bit of belief that we can do it,Last summer it was a fitness coach we signed this summer we should look out for a top Psychologist,cause which ever player joins no matter how big the player is if the environment you are playing in dont have the belief youve got,you either over work yourself or you drop into the same mindset,Yes we do need to strengthen no we dont need 3-4 players
There have been loads of talk about the transfer window of this summer. I think this is probably the greatest window we have in our history. When I look at the best clubs in the world they go about buying 1 or 2 players per Window. But at Arsenal people want 4 to 5 players in the summer. haven’t we learned anything this season?
Look at the likes of Barca bayern Real they add very few players. Chelsea added just Costa and Cesc and felipe. Curtois was on loan.
Buying 4 0r 5 or 6 players upset the balance of the squad. Look at United Arsenal and Liverpool atleast 6 changes to the team and we all had a terrible start. Look at Spurs when the got 7 new players the manager Villa Boas was sacked as the team chemistry was just poor.
I think we have a fantastic squad. We need 2 quality Players. One more Goal scorer to help Giroud and a CM/DM who can rotate with Coq and play alongside Coq in so tough away games.
Arsene wenger has evaded twice the questions related to mourinho 13 match unbeatable streak and all he has done his entire career is pass on
the faults of performance towards players by utilising shit tactics and by the way, had Diego played arsenal would have been dejected cause he is a menace and does the job. When it comes to game management I hope Jose writes a book on it and I bet it will get sold more than Arsene’s autobiography. And personally I would like consider the facts that hector ballerin and Monreal are world class ^10 better than lousy gibbs and Debach.
Every club has a bogey club or two, it just hurts more when its a close rival. We could adopt che tactics letting ourselves be brought down to that level but football is about entertainment and the extra ordinary, i would much prefer to see 11 Bergkamps on the field than to witness 11 Terrys.
Defending is an art though… but with forward thinking built on from it – not around it.
We drew 0-0 at home last season
we drew 0-0 at home this season
Don’t see how we have closed the gap. Its the same story EVERY season. We finish the season in good form, fall under the impression that the team if good enough to win the title, don’t sign players, and begin the new season in poor form.
I’m not falling for the same shit anymore. I’ll believe that we have closed the gap when we start beating the top tems on a more regular basis.
When we play che next time hopefully they will be in need of points more than we are because i would be very interested and would expect different outcome as last type of game plays right into chelseas thinking. They will suffer when that day comes COYG.
Can somebody please tell me why we took Giroud off yesterday? We NEEDED a goal and we take our best Centre forward off!!
Because he was invisible most off the match?