Arsenal’s confidence is the big difference from last season

Quick reaction from Lacazette – now we can maybe go to the Champions League by Sam P

Ten home wins in a row and we are now third, two points ahead of Tottenham and Man Utd and three points ahead of Chelsea. It was a dominant display and could have been an even higher margin of victory, it is hard to fault any of the players, there was of course the odd mistake but as an overall performance, it was calm, fluid, creative and assured.

Lacazette was extremely effective up front, Ozil was sublime, Ramsey was driven and even Mustafi with his customary mistakes was on a mission. Even the subs looked like they were enjoying themselves, there was no nervousness and at no stage did we allow Newcastle to get any sort of foothold in the game.

Confidence is shooting skywards and Champions League is now tantalisingly close as Lacazette told SkySports after the game.

“It was a big game tonight, a tough game. The coach said we had to be patient and efficient in the box and we did that” he said. “It’s always like this against Newcastle. We are happy.

“I can feel the difference in the atmosphere from last season, now we can maybe go to the Champions League. The fans helped us to get third place. We work every day to be in third place, now we must stay in this position.

“I would like to score away from home too but if we win that’s all that is important. We are more confident, everybody knows what we have to do.”

We only have two more league games at home and so it is far from a stroll but it is now in our hands and the way we played, I for one am convinced that we will be playing Champions League football at the Emirates next season.

16 Comments

  1. Tell me where we would have been on the league table if Wenger was still at the helm of things? it doesn’t mean he’s a bad manager, but sometimes a change is all you need to turn things around and that is what has happened to Arsenal this season, new personality at the helm comes with new ideas. in most cases it could go wrong (man utd), sometimes it can be the best thing (arsenal). I love Arsene Wenger, I’m still a big fan of his, but he felt too comfortable and complacent. But right now I can’t help but say am loving that man Unai Emery, so much energy in him alone on the touchline, that alone is motivation for the boys. that’s called leading by example, like he’s telling them “you see this energy in me, that’s I want to see in you right now”. All am trying to say is that the coach deserves our praise, cause nobody expected him to go this far with the team this season.

    1. “cause nobody expected him to go this far with the team this season.”

      Ohh mate I did, I remember pointing out in two different articles after he was appointed saying I see us finishing either second or third place and winning the Europa league. I’ve never looked at this squad as completely hopeless the way most fans on here do, I’ve always said it that Wenger was good, what we needed was just a change, a breathe of fresh air, even if it was Arteta, what we needed was the feeling of change.

      I turned on Emery half into the season when he started freezing out Ozil, and using Ramsey sparingly, when he turned us into a defensive team, I’ve always been against the treatment of our players like that, I turned on him when he was obsessed with Iwobi and Mhiki that even in bad form, he’ll play both of them and leave Ozil at home, Ramsey on the bench.
      I believe now he’s back to his senses (No offense meant)
      Now he’s using the whole squad the way he was supposed to all through, I believe we’re on course to ending up with that third position and Europa league like I pointed out after his appointment( I wish I can get the link to those articles that I made those comments on)

      What most fans failed to see is the fact that our players ain’t that bad, but most fans make them look like they’re championship level.

      P.S: If he keeps on using the team to their full potential, and put away his trouble with certain players, get in defensive reinforcements, we’ll be challenging for the league next season. I’ve pointed all of this out before, he derailed, he’s back on trail now so full credit goes to him

      1. By nobody, I might be exaggerating, but I don’t literarily mean nobody per say. I meant majority especially the so called football experts or pundits and medias and most especially many fans here on this site who doesn’t wana leave their Wenger world. but regarding your comment on Ozil, I think he did the best thing for the squad by not playing him for some time, that passed a message to both Ozil and everyone else that nobody is an automatic starter for the team and you must work to deserve your place in the team. I think that worked out well because i saw Ozil going into tackles yesterday and putting his body on the line which is rare of him. so I can actually say the manager’s actions has had a positive effect on Ozil’s attitudes in games.

        1. Emery now has a full complement (apart from the long term injured in Holding, Welbeck and Bellerin) of players available for selection. How many of the games in which Emery was accused of “freezing him out” was Ozil available to play? Ozil was injured (back spasms) and ill on a number of occassions.

      2. Did you really expected us to be where we are now and playing the way we are at the start of the season?I,d like to think myself as a fan with an optimistic outlook but even I didn,t expect it,I saw this season as a transitional one with everything that comes with it when a new manager comes in,apart a few players this is not his team yet despite the improvements in every department anyway I am a happy gunner even though despite our win and being third pundits still don,t see do it(carragher,andy cole……and co)

    2. Actually it DID mean “he(Wenger) was a bad manager” and was the reason we now have the incredibly good Emery running the team properly and pro-actively. WENGER USED TO HAVE GREAT ENERGY IN HIS GLORY YEARS BUT IN THE FAMINE YEARS ALL HE DID WAS TRY BUT FAIL TO ZIP UP HIS COAT, WHILE SITTING DOWN ALMOST ALL THE TIME. Emery is for todays game; WENGER WAS FOR TWENTY YEARS AGO GAME.

      1. I don,t understand why people think that managers who are jumping,doing cartwheels on the sidelines are more passionate than the quiet ones?look at the pellegreni,benitez,garcia….quiet but still passionate.

        1. Because overtly shown passion galvanises fans and often players too, far more than quiet introverted type managers and then the passion is shared by fans to a greater extent. It is in principle the same thing as crowd warmer uppers and cheer leaders, even though I personally don’t care for American style cheer leaders in our traditional sport. You have a point about how actual passion need not be overtly shown to be great but it is the knock on effect that works. Crowds identify with managers who show passion as do players too and passion is at the heart of football. Or else it is soulless! I hav enever evcer found a fan anywhere who wants his manager to sit quietely looking glum, in true Steve Bould style. Hardly the life and soul of the party type our Bouldy, is he! And football should also be about fun and the nonsensical booking of players for the ” HEINOUS CRIME” of removing their shirts shows how out of touch with fans and reality of the game the authorities actually are. Some things never change!

  2. A fine result indeed – however the test for arsenal football should be to fix our away form and do it immediately. Its as much about attitude as anything else – arsenal players need to bowl in to all of the “away” grounds and then [*earn] the right to play our style. We have to impose our game and it requires the arsenal attack to be at our MOST deadly in the final third – we know (already) that we are better than the teams that remain in our way.

    Champions league football is very much within our grasp, so its not too late correct our away form, which should be Ozil’s focus in the EPL as well as in Europa League. That’s right, World Beater Ozil (emphasis). He’s about to come under enormous scrutiny, I think he is the key if we’re to achieve any further success.

  3. Certainly didn’t expect us where we are today!

    So refreshing with new belief and attitude?

    However I am still as true Arsenal moaner afraid of our away games and possible distraction with Napoli coming up…

    Trust in Emery though and believe in great things until end of season with Özil finally ready to fight – great performance last night – and form of our strikers as well as Ramsey – never seen him play so disciplined under Wenger?

  4. Emery has done very well to get us to where we are given the poor quality centre backs he inherited.He has managed to paper over the cracks in our defence by deploying 3 centre backs and at home this has been very effective albeit that a number of our performances have been unconvincing.Against Newcastle the inclusion of Ozil and Ramsay gave us the creativity we have lacked and others like Lacazette(what a class player) grew in confidence as the game progressed.Unfortunately our weaknesses at centre back, excluding Monreal were evident in the first half and against a more mobile and quicker player than Rondon we could have conceded a goal of two.Our lack of pace and aerial power at the back really concerns me and we are likely to come under heavy bombardment in this area against Everton and even more so against Watford.I hope I am proved wrong but I cannot see us keeping a clean sheet in these matches particularly if Kocielney is not available.That does not mean we cannot win these matches but to me the confidence factor has not yet spread to our centre backs.

  5. I expected Emery to do well at Arsenal……probably for the next five years……based on his history with mid level teams I felt he would be a good fit for Arsenal……we will win Europa…..

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