Just for a change the Arsenal team that played last night were a joy to watch, and not only consolidated their place in the Top Four, they also closed the gap on the Spuds, and also improved our goal difference! What more could you expect from a bunch of losers like us lol…..
Even Carl Jenkinson, who only plays once in a blue moon for us but did a fine job as a supersub sub, got caught up in the confident atmosphere, but he kept to the party line of not thinking about a Top Four place yet despite our position.
Of course the fact is that our next game is the North London derby, but after three wins for us and a couple of defeats to a collapsing Spurs, there is a good chance we could close the gap on our rivals even further. Jenks said on the Top Four chances: “I think it’s a very easy thing to say but we’re looking at one game at a time. That’s the way we’ve got to look at things and it’s the way the manager looks at things. We just keep building.
“In the last few games in particular, we’ve played some really good stuff. We’re looking like a very strong side, which we are. We’ve got a lot of really talented players and we want to show that we can do well at the minute. Of course, we’ve got a tough game coming up but we’re going into it with a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence.”
“It’s hugely important. Towards the end of the season is a very critical time because the competitions are coming to an end and it’s about being consistent to get the results. I think we’re doing that really well at the minute but we’ve got some big games coming up. It’s a very important time for us but as players, we all know that. Our focus is on doing a good job and doing what we need to do.”
Okay I know I’ve got to temper my enthusiasm just a little bit longer, but can you imagine the scenes if we beat Tottenham at the weekend? We will be just one point behind their third place and their confidence will be shattered. After that would anyone condemn me if I started dreaming about St Totteringham’s Day again, and a Champions League place next season?
Come On You Gunners!
Of course we can dream, no harm in doing that!
We’re playing well right now, hopefully we’ll keep it up.. then Bob’s your uncle ? COYG
No harm really until you have consecutive nightmares???
…not wishing you/us that though.
??
I am definitely not getting carried away with 3 home victories against weak opposition. Make no mistake, it’ll be a very tough game at weekend, and whilst anything could happen, I do not expect us to win, mainly because of our defence. Even in these 3 wins, we’ve given away some guilt edge chances, and have mainly got away with it because of Leno and poor finishing. But quality WILL punish such errors, and Kane and Son are quality.
Given, we’ll be the weaker team, and away from home, I’d like to see us play a deep defensive line, plenty behind the ball, and hit them on the counter.
What is this weak oppositions you and others keep saying We were beaten by the so called weak oppositions. Westham beat us,Bate beat us, Soton Beat us, Bournemouth best Chelsea 4 or 5 zero, spurs got beaten by Burly nobody says or think of these team weak when they beat us or our rivals but when we beat them convincingly it is because they are weak. Do you prefer we take them lightly and we draw or lose to them.
Mesut Ozil should be offered a NEW CONTRACT with a SUBSTANTIAL PAY RISE.
See what happens when you play your best attackers in the team.Even with Lacazette on the Bench we created from the start.
And did anyone notice Ozil running 60 yards to put a tackle in?Or jump into challenges in the air?No neither did I.And it just shows you are not required to run around like a headless chicken for 90 minutes just to satisfy some who feel it’s all about the effort and not the quality.
And a big shout out to Carl Jenkinson.A player with limited ability (even less than Iwobi if that is possible) But showed he can still produce a performance when needed.
Phil i usually don’t slate players but have been bashing Ozil recently and only because he can be an amazing player like last night but he chooses not to be last night he was even helping out on defending, the last time he played this good was just before his contract signing hope he keeps this up and goes down in history as one of Arsenals great players, and also Miki had a amazing game and did all the team
? Ozil was fantastic last night
BUT let’s see him play this well in a string of matches. Not just once in a while
He can still persuade me to want to keep him if he plays well in our remaining matches.
Otherwise I’m still hoping he is sold in the Summer
He isn’t worth £300k per week let alone a “substantial” pay rise…Yet
AM WITH YOU , EVERY WORD TOO!
? Phil
@Phil
Ozil should be performing in these types of games, so let’s not get carried away. When Ozil starts performing in the big games consistently, is when I am willing to say we should keep him. Zero good performances in big games so far this season does not bode well.
That said, Ozil has seemed a lot more motivated in the last few games, so I hope he has turned a corner, but it is WAY to early to tell. He needs to start showing up in away games, and perform better in the big games.
I thought Ozil played well in the WORLD CUP FINAL when Hermany won in 2014.Or is that game not big enough?And if he is not playing how can he perform?
Emery will play Iwobi on Saturday-Lets see how he delivers.DONT HOLD YOUR BREATH
Sad that Phil and some others are making this look like a contest between Ozil and Iwobi. They play in different positions. It is about Iwobi improving his end product and Ozil, with his acclaimed talent, delivering in the big games for Arsenal.
Don’t get carried away Phil this is just a rare start. When Iwobi returns to full fitness it is expected that he’ll take back HIS starting position from Ozil.
You say ozil should be permforming in these types of games ,but iwobi hasn’t performed in any games this season so why would you not want ozil in you’re team ?
Have you ever seen iwobi do them dirty assits that ozil does ?no I haven’t either because he’s incapable of producing them .
Why any arsenal fan after watching ozil play last night would still say he should be dropped then I’m lost for words .remember this team beat Chelsea 4-0 last week ,but I suppose that’s forgotten and they are a small team again .
He might take his place again but we wont play football like we did last night with iwobi in the team .
No idea why emery plays him ,a lot of rumblings with arsenal fans why he keeps playing him ,that’s why emery came out the other day and defended him .
But if emerys happy to challenge for just top 4 then he can keep playing iwobi ,I know for a fact the other top 5teams would not have him anywhere near their squads
Jeez you are a troll aren’t you?
Look, the argument recently is why Iwobi is starting ahead of Ozil, who is a World Class player, but surely no one can deny that Iwobi has improved drastically from last year, and as he is only 22 he has every chance of becoming a real star of the future. He may not be the finished article now (How many of our players are?) but he has real promise of being a future star. I really hope he does or a lot of our readers are going to be very disappointed! Give him time please….
I’m a troll for stating my opinion ?
He may have improved but that wasn’t hard was it ?
I want to see arsenal fighting for the title not fighting for 4th place and with players like iwobi in the squad that’s exactly what we will be doing .
I’m not sure why you seem to keep picking me and my comments out aswel pat Tbf .have I said something to annoy you ?
For your information, Ozil and Iwobi are not competing for the same position, rather complementary – they actually play well together. If the coach for some reason(s) decided to substitute one with the other, then he must have a good reason for doing it.
I think all these constant Iwobi slating is coming from the misunderstanding that Iwobi and Ozil play the same position, and that being the case, when Ozil doesn’t play, it is because of Iwobi. This is very wrong.
Man Phil, what’s up with you and Iwobi? Amazing victory for us, your best player had a good match, and yet you still bring Iwobi up? He may not be good enough to be regular starter but he gives his best, which is enough for me to be part of the squad. Your love for Ozil should not shadow your views on Iwobi’s development, no matter little they maybe. This is coming from someone that still feels he should not be a first team regular for us. For now though, as no one knows what tomorrow may offer and he is still 22yrs of age.
thank you for supporting Jenkinson now support Iwobi also when he has a good match also. Monreal and Kola both love him playing infront of them . so deal with it .Your fast becoming like Th14 .
Oh pleaaaaaase-Get a life why don’t you.
It was a bit of BANTER.
And did anyone else see Iwobi sprint over to Mesut Ozil at the end of the game to get his shirt …………………
And if Harry dah dah dah dah Kane is not given a 3 game ban for THAT headbutt on Whatshisnamefromspainwhoplaysatthebackforchelski then there is no justice in this country.Just because Harry dah dah dah dah Kane is loved by the media in this country and can do no wrong he cannot be allowed to get away with that.
What’s the betting no further action is taken against him?
An extra ban on top for headbutting with horns ?
And another for wasting time….
When booked and asked for his name he couldn’t remember.When he did he couldn’t spell it.
dah dah dah
?? He only bloody got away with it! Surprise surprise!! I wonder if Poch will too?
Sue-was you really surprised?I wasn’t.Imagine if that was one of our players on Saturday.Still I want them to have their best side out so no excuses when we beat them.
If I’m honest, not really Phil. But yes full strength on Saturday, so we don’t hear the spuds saying ‘ We’d have won if Kane had played’ ???
So how was last night? How good was Mesut?! So happy seeing him back in the team!
The whole team played well last night Sue But Bournemouth were pretty poor to be honest.We still gave them chances and Sideshow Bob needs to stop losing the ball like he did AGAIN last night.But overall we looked very good going forward and pretty solid in midfield.
I see the same backline on Saturday with Xhaka in for Guandouzi and Fat Arse replacing Ozil.
Too many empty seats again last night which was a surprise but we have had a lot of games recently.Apparantley tickets were on General Sale which does not happen often.
Stilloff toWembley on Saturday and don’t stress out-we will beat 5pur5.They are in decline.
Yes I saw they were on general sale.. did think about going…. wish I had!!
I hope so Phil….was on cloud 9 for a fortnight after we beat them at the Emirates… would definitely welcome that feeling again!!
If he had horns as Sue pointed out??, then there should be additional ban for smuggling weapons into the game??
Why not? Laca was given 3 straight for struggling to free himself from stranglehold??, confused for elbowing?
There was definitely something growing on his forehead – horns or maybe antlers ?
Horns or antlers, all are weapons – dangerous ones ??
please don,t jinx it before hand with your banners!!if my memory serves me right more often than not we beat the spuds when our form & results we bad and when everyone expect us to win because of our form & good results we lose!!are we played a spuds team starting to implode looking at their manager& staff?what about us?are we going to this game overconfident,tired,bigheaded….still COYG!!
Am worried about Koscielny i wanted him and Sokratis to stand in for us until end of season
Man-City get a great deal with Puma 65M a year we had 30M which can only means it was puma who dumped us and not the other way around and that could only be because we are not ambitious enough, we have a new contract with Adidas’s for 50M a year so city will have 15M extra to spend and Man-U will have 25M more to spend if you calculate those figures it means they can buy WC player every 3 years and get in the champions league and earn up to 50/60M more a year, when is our board going to realize not being ambitious we are failing behind 80M a year from the two Manchester clubs, YOU MUST SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE
what i’m tyring to point out the two Manchester clubs will earn around 80M a year more then Arsenal if we don’t get in the champions league and to be able to guarantee to get in to the top four we need to spend 200 to 250M just to play catch up
80M a year that’s a Hazard first year David de Gea second year Virgil van Dijk thid year and so on
Our deal with adidas is 60m a year plus unlike man city who are locked for 10 years we can actually negotiate a higher deal in 5 years. Get it right we dumped puma, compare man city a club at the peak of powers and us a club in rebuild mode. i say we got a pretty good deal.
sorry sir
The UTD sponsor is a point of interest, UTD are not being bank rolled to spend unlimited funds from the owner… Like City.
Yet UTD are competitive to City in net spending…
We spent too many years selling starts to pay for stuff instead of keeping those stars and demanding more from sponsors and business partners… Growing business partnerships etc.
If we look at Arsenals growth in income then we can see it is one of the worst (if not the worst) out of the top 6.
Raul and VV have a lot of work but if they can do it then wee can compete 🙂
A defensive set up on Saturday against Spurs would be stupid and calling on them to have a go at us. They have fast players in Kane, especially Son.
If we set up to defend, we’ll get beaten, it has happened under Wenger last two seasons. Plus it’s a NLD, I don’t want us defending and letting the pressure pile up on us, I’ve never seen City, United(Under OGS) both being defensive while away, that’s because the more threat you pose attacking wise the lesser threat you have to fight against. Let’s give Spurs something to haunt em in their dreams, let’s attack and take our chances, let’s do the damages so they’ll have to focus on not conceding goals. Our defenders should be ready to do the perfect job at the black, I trust Leno is picking up his form, Saved us in our last two games.
But as you said, they have fast players, so isn’t a high defensive line more of a concern? Wenger almost always played a high defensive line, and look at how many problems it caused us against quality players. It’s caused us major problems in the last 2 games as well.
Attack that is what we do best. Give the players the freedom and formation that they understand. Great teams, players and managers impose their way irrespective of where they play.
Wasn’t it Emery who said he’d rather win 5-4.
Play our best players, keep them happy and stop tinkering with the formation.
Wenger was never the type to play the high line, and I won’t try that high line shot on Saturday, If we do, all they need to do is knock the ball over our defenders, have you forgotten how Spurs kicked us out of the Carabao cup this season?? Getting caught up in our lines.
So I don’t know if you think I want us to play the high line, I don’t want us to play it, and I don’t want five defenders on the pitch either, four defenders and our defensive midfielders are good enough for this game
Eddie, What are you talking about! WENGER CONSTANTLY PLAYED A HIGH LINE AND WHEN HE HAD TORTOISE SLOW PLAYERS LIKE MERTS PLAYING , we often paid the pride for it. Sending BOTH full backs up as well and at once too to make it even more foolhardy. iF wEnger had even the first idea of how to organaise defence he might well be still here. But he DID NOT. A high line against Spuds would be stupid; that does NOT mean we sit back and pass the bus though. A fast passing game is best with artistic midfielders, which we do have, though neither are renowned for working hard and MORE IMPORTANTLY, REGULARLY. Last night, glory be, both did! BUT CAN WE TRUST THEM AGAINST SPUDS? Who knows!
Wenger was never the type to play the high line, and I won’t try that high line poo on Saturday, If we do, all they need to do is knock the ball over our defenders, have you forgotten how Spurs kicked us out of the Carabao cup this season?? Getting caught up in our lines.
So I don’t know if you think I want us to play the high line, I don’t want us to play it, and I don’t want five defenders on the pitch either, four defenders and our defensive midfielders are good enough for this game
So you mean you mean something in between I guess? Not a bad a shout I’d say., because too defensive does come with problems as well. But I definitely have to disagree with “Wenger was never the type to play the high line”. That’s pretty much what he did in every game. I used to have panic attacks seeing Mertesacker almost at the halfway line in open play. Haha!
TMJW, ALL I can disagee with in your fine post is the “Ha Ha”. To me a “WeepWeep” would have been far more appropriate. And I ALWAYS had panic attacks whenever I first saw Merts name on the teamsheet , well before kick off time. To my clear thinking mind any player THAT freakishly slow was always an accident waiting to happen. I never liked him for that VERY reason, despite the good positional sense he had but which could never make up for the tortoise slow movement. Our Prem is the fastest and most physical top league in the world and ANY player THAT slow should be nowhere near it, IMHO! LACK OF REAL PACE IS ONE THING; WALKING IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE AND BEING OVERTAKEN BY NELSON’S COLUMN IS QUITE ANOTHER THING.
Yesterday’s formation maybe the best so far with Miki n Ozil linking up well, they showed they were the best 10s a while ago and can form a formidable partnership, I still prefer Laca over Aubameyang and Xhaka over Guendozi but the rest of the team should be set in stone.