Arsenal don’t need to worry about Spurs! – says Wenger

It is always hard to feel anything positive when Arsenal lose. And when that loss comes at the hands of our old enemies from north London then it is even harder to take. And maybe we have got a little too complacent after beating the spuds in all three games last season, so this was a real kick in the teeth.

But after licking my wounds, having a few drinks and feeling sorry for myself for a while, I can look at the game and where it leaves Arsenal with a bit more objectivity. It looks bad for us right now because the loss drops us back into 6th and sees Spurs go one point above us.

But it is not the end of the world Gooners. As Wenger pointed out in his post match comments on the Arsenal website, we have a better fixture schedule between now and the end of the season than the spuds. And we also have a certain Alexis Sanchez due back to help us put this disappointing game behind us.

The manager said, “It leaves us with a big disappointment to swallow first and then to prepare for the next game. We have played two more away games than Spurs, who have played 13 at home and 11 away. We have played 13 away and 11 at home. It’s down to our home form now – we know we can win away from home but it will be a battle until the end. It has been every year with Spurs. We just have to focus on us, because there are many teams fighting to get in there [the top four].”

And not only do the Gunners have more home games left, we also have more games against the lower clubs. Arsenal have got nine of our remaining 14 Premier League games against teams in the bottom half while the spuds have just seven. The Frenchman also declared that Arsenal have the perfect opportunity to bounce back quickly, with a home game against struggling Leicester on Tuesday night, while our rivals travel to Anfield to face Liverpool.

So while Spurs are currently gloating and above us in the table, there is a long way to go and Arsenal have come back from much worse situations before. Are you still confident of a top four finish?

Tags Leicester Spurs tottenham

22 Comments

  1. 14 points behind 1st at 6th place. I didn’t expect that at beginning of season

    Oh Well, lets hope for the best

  2. Teams in the bottom half are fighting for survival, wounded animals can be very dangerous.
    We can’t be complacent in any of our remaining fixtures.

    1. That’s a really good point
      We lost away to Spurs, but Leicester will be trying to take points off us to survive.

      We need to get over this blip fast and concentrate on Tuesday.

      Work hard for 90 minutes
      Defend hard, keep possession of the ball And take advantage of opportunities

      1. No easy street really. Leicester will hopefully let us regroup. Middlesbrough is no push over. Quality players like Kalas from Chelsea. Crystal palace are playing well. Monaco will be a quality side. Find a way to play with players coming back into the mix, Ozil, Walcott, Ox. I think Santi had a tough game because rarely has he been influential in backfooted attempts like today. He needs quality possession football. I think that’s when we’re at our best.

  3. I just find it worrying that the spuds are a must beat side, even more so as this was a 6 pointer, yet our midfield – mainly Cazorla because Rambo had been having shockers since he came back, just didn’t seem up for it, having performed so well in the last two games, and I don’t see any reason for this apparent lack of form.

    When any of the other big sides have shock defeats, at least they look like they may come back all through the game, we never did until the spuds scored their second goal.

    Although we will probably never know why Cazorla had this blip, surely Wenger must know what state the players are in, and make whatever rectifying steps are necessary? Rambo should never have started – he needs slowly breaking in again – Rosicky and Rambo should switch places in terms of starting.

    TBH I think our MOTM was Ospina. The mistake he made letting in the goal was more than made up for by other brilliant saves.

    1. Ospina ??? …. He was awful !

      Pushed everything into dangerous areas , flapped at the first goal and generally looked shaky …. First game since the days of almunia that I was dreading balls into the box !

      3 teams have done this to us this year , Dortmund , Liverpool and spuds away have all pressed us at a high tempo , we struggle with it massively.

      We have too many fair weather players in midfield that are incapable grabbing games like this by the scruff of the neck , we literally couldn’t get out of our half at times , I love Rambo on form but a cesc fabregas yesterday would of just settled things down by constantly finding people’s feet !

      Yeah Ozil scored again , but he can’t control games from the wing , his lack of pace kills us out wide , I’m not going to pick on Coquelin because he was probably our best midfielder , but I think it’s clear his lack of ball retention might be a factor on whether he nails that position down full time !

      My view hasn’t changed because of one good result at city , I have always want us to play a pressing game from the front with exciting energetic football …. We actually have the front players to do it too , in alexis , welbs , theo and ox !

      It’s so frustrating watching Sanchez sprint round , encouraging his team mates to do the same whilst everybody stands there just watching , wondering what this crazy individual is doing ….!

      Thumbs up for Monreal , finally showing why he had such a good reputation…. Bellerin will be top class , but was pulled all over the place by eriksen giving rose space yesterday , sure he will learn quickly as he looks like a real find , they are my only positives from yesterday.

  4. We have to treat every game as if its a final, not making the mistake of underestimating our opponents! We are still in the mix so lets not lose heart! Coyg!

  5. Lets not dwell on the lost to spurs, but motivate ourselves in moving on to our next game against leicester city on tuesday at the emirates! Its tight in the race for a top four place, so we have got to dig deep against leicester city and get that all important 3 priceless points! Coyg!

  6. Yes we dont need to worry about spurs but we do need to worry about top 4. MANY THINK its a foregone conclusion that top 4 is ours. Right now the table says we are 6th. What will happen if we are not in top 4 and lose champions league football. Can we attract players like our rival Manchester united did even after not featuring in Champions league. Its worrying and I cant imagine us not being in top 4.

  7. we have no excuses to lose at white hart lane…..

    its a must win game at every game…

    time to go Wenger….

  8. for the first time we are out of champ league…..

    failure to spend has causes us big….

    time for a change….

  9. Southampton won + not going away.
    Utd have talent and a fanatic Manager.
    Maybe Spurs really can sustain a run?
    City on the slide perhaps?
    Liverpool? Westham?
    Newcastle Stoke Everton can upset.
    The away loss to Spurs I have accounted for.
    I think the home games with Chelsea Liverpool
    and Everton are more critical.
    But the away game to Utd late in the piece looks extra spicy.
    FA cup and ECL as well which is making for a fascinating run in.
    March – April the “business” end of the season.
    Joy for some despair for others.
    Squeaky bum, heart palpatation time. Bring it on.

  10. Man these moments every season get me down.. Wenger going on about it will be a battle to the end for CL places. I am not trying to be arrogant or cocky but we should not be holding to 4th each and every season, fck sake…

    We spent £42 million on Ozil, £35 million on Sanchez, Cazorla £16 million, Welbeck £16 million etc… And wenger has been with us for nearly 20 years, we are not in the same boat as the likes of United, Liverpool, Spuds, Southampton who are always in transition due to changing their managers every after 1-2 years.. Wenger should know what is needed in the team because it’s his players and squad..

    We should be pushing on from here, but we we just got worse this season when we have better players, the worst start to a season in 30 years.

    And for high intensity games some players should not be picked for these kind of games….

    And I am getting worried about our 12:45 kick off games, it seems like the players have now convinced themselves that early kick off games are our nightmare. Mert came up with this crap last season..

    The team really disappointed me so much with the lack of fight, commitment, effort etc..

    1. You highlight a good point there. 20 years with the same manager has bought stability and consistency (I know “consistency” is a relative term but by just about any measure we have been the most consistent PL club over the last 20 years). Changing managers usually brings some immediate benefits and spikes in performance but it normally drops off over time. And whilst at this precise moment we “are in the same boat” as Pool, Spuds and Soton they would all kill to have half of what we have had over the past 20 years. Not sure who you can impetus and longer term consistency/stability. Part of me would like to see a Real Madrid approach, baby out with the bathwater every 2 years – but is a mighty expensive way to run a club and probably only RM can get away with it.

  11. I could not believe that nut case Piers Morgan, going on about how we should go and get KLOPP from Dortmund and ask him to win us the title like he did with Dortmund..smh

    How the hell can you go for a manager that has had 2-3 good seasons and now can’t motivate his player who are struggling to avoid relegation.. If he can’t motivate a group of players that play in a 1 club league how can he motivate Arsenal players when the chips are down in a league with 7 tough clubs that are competing for 4 CL places???

    I am not sure about Klopps motivation skills right now…

  12. And can we stop bullsh”ting now, Koscielny is getting off easily, how many goals have we conceded due to his lack of aerial awareness?? He did not even know where Kane was when he was the one close to him foe that cross..

    Against Villa too, Kossy looked clueless when Benteke had that free header, Kossy does not seem to have any co-ordinations when it comes to high balls.. Since he has been back he has been tentative and panicky sometimes.

    Away at southampton he got tight on Mane and wanted to nick the ball ahead then got turned and Mr Szny was out for an evening walk himself..

    Against Stoke made 2 school boy mistakes on the half way line and he was lucky Peter Crouch is so lanky and slow, had he had some pace we would have been punished..

    Against Liverpool away, Kossy was at fault as Mertesacker, instead of marking the likes of Skrtel and Lambert he was stood in the middle of nowhere with not a single Liverpool player around him..

    I can go on and on, his pace gets him out of trouble a lot of time, he has to calm the hell down and work on his aerial game..

  13. There is an old English saying that ” One swallow does not make a summer.” Similarly one defeat to Spurs does not constitute a disaster especially now that the players have realised where they were lacking. What is more appropriate is for the players to determine to recover very fast and make this defeat like an unfortunate slip which happened as all accidents do. It is our positive response to this defeat that matters more than mourning over a defeat to an enemy. True it hurts but that is where it should stop because it is just three points lost and no more. We should concentrate on substance more than the fantasy of bragging rights whatever they are worth! Let our boys determine to go on a roll as they did after the last loss to Spurs and finish above them. That will be sweet revenge. By the way have you learnt that Real Madrid lost to Atletico by 4-0? This is Real with all the expensively assembled team and the current CL Champions losing to their bitter rivals! Mark you this was a derby like ours. What then is unusual in our defeat to Spurs? These things do happen and we have to accept them and move on. If you keep dwelling on the past you will never succeed in life. Success comes when you let bye-gones be bye-gones and move on. That is how the world moves.

  14. The problem with Arsene Wenger is what I call his usual “ball watching” — basically clueless about how to change a game when it’s not going your way. It’s pure and simple: poor sense of judgment, poor calculation and poor timing of substitution. When you are playing Spurs, it’s a derby game, you are not playing Man City or Man U, and Wenger totally under-rated that. Sadly he does not change his formation/game plan in the middle of a game when opponents have predicted his tactics and locked him out, nor does he shout instructions to his players. Why make substitutions after 70 minutes and expect them have impact and change the game? Remember, he is not getting younger! This keeps being repeated season in season out. What change are you expecting?

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