Arsenal seem to have been in invincible form since the disappointment of the defeat to Monaco, and they produced yet another sublime performance today against West Ham. Arsene Wenger was obviously very pleased with the result to keep our momentum going ahead of Tuesday’s showdown in Monaco.
Le Boss said after the game: “It’s a good performance. We controlled the game in the first half, created many chances but couldn’t score. In the second half I felt we were a bit short of energy coming out of the dressing room for a while and West Ham were on top for that period. After, in the final part of the game, we always looked dangerous and capable of scoring goals. We had to patient, organised and steady. Overall we scored great collective goals like we love to play.”
Even though we looked to be in control, it took until the stroke of half-time for us to make the breakthrough, and Wenger was ecstatic with the move that led to our opener. “It was a fantastic goal because it’s a consequence of a fantastic combination just before and after. On top of that the finishing was great. It’s the kind of goal we love to score. On top of that Giroud had a great finish.”
With Man City dropping points the Gunners are now breathing down their necks for second place, and this could end up being a great weekend for us in the race to secure next season’s Champions League place, but Wenger thinks it is unlikely we could catch Chelsea. “Not at the moment but we just have to keep going. We’ve won eight of the last nine and we are stronger today than we were at the start of the season. We dropped off in this league because we won one of six at the start of the season. Today we are a different team. We suffered a lot from the post-World Cup fixtures. Players came back and they weren’t ready to play.”
Now we have to rest and prepare for the crucial game on Tuesday. It may be unlikely that we go through, but Wenger refuses to throw in the towel just yet. “If you have no belief, you have no chance.” he concluded. “We have to believe that we can do it and give everything. This time Monaco are favourites so we have to go there, give absolutely everything and come out of the game with that feeling.”
Onwards and upwards!
Man city slip up at burnley gunners 1 point behind, 2nd spot is now a possibility for arsenal! Come on gunners lets make a fight of it! Coyg!
Galen, do you remember Aleksander Hleb?? Ozil reminds me of him. Hleb would never shoot no matter what
We went on a run of 10 straight wins from March-May in ’98 to win the title, closing an 8 point gap on United. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.
Without raising my hopes nor being overly optimistic, Chelski is not playing that great, Cesc is flunking, Costa has not scored in ages, and the CL elimination by a 10 men PSG hit them hard….Burnley showed today that big teams can be beaten and Chelski is far from that status right now….we can only hope.
@ Galen
Your right your not a coach cause no1 would’ve seen the pass that ozil executed to ox which resulted I’n a goal. If he would’ve shot like your suggesting nothing would’ve came from it. Ozil I’s not scared to shoot you can tell he I’s obsessed with assisting ( a little too obsessed). He will learn to shoot the more he plays but he I’s playing excellently for me, he’s at the heart of every goal and he always has a “pre-assist if not an assist
I think he quickly calculated that he had a 28.6% chance of converting the shot against a 33% chance of an assist by crossing it. I think he makes the right decision most of the time – I’ll always cut some slack for an unselfish creative AM. It is your strikers you want as the proper selfish b*&^&&ds – but even OG seems to suffer from assist-itus.
he shot today, did you not see? the one opening he tried to hit walcott, maybe trying to get him rolling? if you were the playmaker for ronaldo at madrid, maybe then you would understand,
Giroud was wonderful today. Goal and assist
Im quietly confident about tuesday night lets pull off an incredible comeback we have the players and confidance to do it
On to the next game now. A non-complacent Arsenal will win the second leg, am just not sure of qualification.
Great game today. I would love second but I dont want Chelshit and d C*nt having the EPL.
Wow! Pinch me i never thought i would be saying this but we are breathing down chelsea and man city necks, if they keep dropping points! Come on gunners!
great weekend it’s turning out to be! I can almost tug @ a city shirt ryt now, That’s how Close we’re to them on the league table! more of the Same morrow pls!
Giroud was great today! Hope he remains fit, and carry this good run of form throughout the rest of the season! Coyg!
Well done lads. Y’all made me proud. In prof’s voice – “we should concentrate more on our own performance than others so as not to put uneccessary pressure on ourselfs”
Giroud has definitely worked on his finishing. What a finish that was! If we play with such quick passing and intensity against Monaco, I believe we can still do it. COYG
“We dropped off in this league because we won one of six at the start of the season. Today we are a different team.”
Yes we are different team because we now friggin got a proper DM protecting the defence!
Everyone was excellent from back to front very pleased with the performance and result! Not sure why Walcott is getting flack, yes he shoulda scored but he brings so much to our team. His pace and runs are deadly and it really opens up space for the rest of our players and he is the only player to do that on our team plus I thought his dribbling and touch looked alot better today.
Webber has a real selection headache for tuesday.
COYG
I see Giroud is at last getting the praise SOME of us KNEW he deserved all along…
I dunno, fickle footie fans.. 😉
He had a great game today, but he needs to find more consistency.
More consistency?! He has had one bad game against Monaco since coming back. Granted that was a pretty bad game but I think it’s time people shut up with this consistency thing, it just makes you look like a child who is afraid of being wrong. I still think we could look at an upgrade so we can rotate the natural position, but the dude has been a beast this year
Tbf one game is all it takes, could be the difference between silver wear, is the difference between good and world class , but always like giroud and think his on the right path just needs to be a bit more confident and show his class
Wenger sees everything that goes on in his squad. When he says players coming back from the WC were not ready – there must be some truth to that statement. The goals we scored today were a joy to watch. The only problem I had was that certain players need to be more selfish. Welbeck is full of confidence, why he doesn’t have a crack is beyond me. I think sometmes Ozil tries to do the unordinary too much, I’ll admit it does confuse the opposition but today he should have belted that one opportunity he had. Like I said when we lost against Monaco, it was because we are not clinical enough in front of goal. Today we should have won 6 – 0.
Totally happy today no performance is perfect,
Now let’s go for the title , I don’t think we will get it but let’s push as much as we can, if we archive RU that’s an improvement and will encourage players to want to join us.
3rd place still an improvement and we don’t have to qualify for the CL
COYG !!!!
Absolutely fantastic day and week
5 PL Wins in a row
We go to SF of FA CUP by beating United @ OT
We need to use this momentum for Tuesday night. It will be darn difficult but a score like today (3-0) is NOT impossible. We need to believe, play positive football, defend hard and be clinical with our scoring opportunities.
I honestly believe we can do it.
COYG
We were starting to look jaded at 1-0 up, Senor Santi came on and turned us around again.
We MUST NOT sell him whatever offer we receive, he is invaluable.
He’s our little Spanish wizard. Your right he is irreplaceable
And by the way anyone who criticises Sanchez stop now, he’s the most direct player we have and even on a bad day, first on the sheet, he may lose the ball but he always tries to win the game, give him your support and he will stay for years
lets get Cavani hes an upgrade of Giroud….he guarantee goals
i like your humor
Koscielny was immense!
giroud is on parr with costa! https://twitter.com/geoffarsenal/status/576829954329042944
Wenger talking sense. This I like.
Giroud scoring goals. This I like.
Rambo playing like Rambo. This I like.
Mertesacker leaving everything to Koscielny…hmmmm…
Just my slight criticism to an otherwise great game. ALOT of positives to take away though.