Why can’t Arsenal play for the full 90 minutes?

Yet again, for the second time in five days, Arsenal have surrendered a 1-0 lead and ended up losing the game, despite looking totally in control from the start of the match. So what is the reason for this? Is it lack of fitness and they get tired after running about for half an hour? Or is it a mental block and they know that they are still in danger once they go ahead, and try to defend too much rather than go in for the kill?

So what is the ‘experts’ opinions? Graeme Souness says it cannot be tiredness. ‘It can’t be because they’re not fit enough, it must be a state of mind, when a certain type of challenge comes along, “It’s not for us chaps”, and they get rolled over,’ the ex-Liverpool manager said.

‘It’s not just about throwing yourself into challenges. It’s the way you close the ball down, how you sprint onto the ball, it shows its way in many different forms. To be successful in our football you have to have an element of that, the true aggression.

‘For the first half an hour Arsenal were the better side. But it must be a concern for Wenger and Arsenal fans that it was a mirror image from the Everton loss. They were bossing it, they were in their arm chair, playing well, and then blow up.’

Blow up? Was then Wenger’s team talk at half time then? ‘Okay we are winning, just relax and we’ll come through okay’. If so, then it wasn’t a very inspirational pep talk was it? Gary Neville, who is quite respected as a pundit, thinks it is a mental thing. ‘They looked lethargic, they were walking around the pitch’ Neville said. ‘Their record in Manchester is poor, I think it’s 1 win in 13. You talk of mentality, to go to Merseyside, to go to Manchester, is where you need that tough mentality to win that title and they just keep falling short.’

So is that Arsenal just can’t handle the big big games? We actually have a good record against City, but not so much in Manchester. And we don’t want to talk about our record at Old Trafford! When was the last time we won at Stamford Bridge?

So what do you think the reason is? Fatigue? Lack of mental toughness? Inferiority complex? Anyone got any ideas?

Admin

14 Comments

  1. We weren’t the better team at any point …

    We had 1 moment in the game , the goal !

    We looked timid from the first minute , Neville was giving us too much credit by suggesting we were drawing them onto us , we simply couldn’t string 3 passes together !

    This mentality is not going to change under arsene , tactically inept.

  2. Admin made a good point during match.
    We need to strengthen our defence and have more clean sheets

    Chelsea are at the top but don’t score a lot of goals. They win 1-0 quite often. They do enough to win and winning is all that matters.

    Our defence is not as great as we think it is.

  3. Thats twice in a row where managers have stepped in for the win While MR wenger ponders about in his mind while on the chair takes for ever to adjust to the game he needs to understand whats going on and react fast to counter balance tactics

  4. Only last week had a chat about arsenal and being soft in center I argued the case for the benefit of arsenal to find out we are the hard way having said that the 2 goals scored against us were suspect one being offside and the other well you can debate about its legitimacy for ever a truly horrid day

  5. Rumour has it we’re getting Simeone next year. He’s been learning English for two years, likes London and the deal is pretty much done/dusted if wenger notifies the board that he’s not coming back. Wenger wants to wait until top 4 is secured before making such announcement and wants to secure the services of Ozil/Sanchez.

    1. I pray that rumour has some truth behind it. I’ve badly wanted him for a while, and I genuinely believe he’s been the best manager in Europe over the last four or five years, given the resources he’s had to work with. Arsenal have gone so soft under Wenger, it’s a joke! Simeone will make us battle for every point!

  6. am no longer bothered, let the lads bring any result they want. Until wenger finally gives up there’s no hope for change in our results.

    1. Arsenal are just having their November in December this year….that’s all. Same as always. Our ultimate February collapse may occur in January or March next year but it is inevitable and it will come followed by a late burst when its too late to really achieve anything of note other than secure a contract extension for Wenger. Same as always. Nothing will change until Wenger is gone!

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