Arsenal are steadily climbing back up the table, and the excellent 3-0 win over Newcastle last night finally put them into the top half of the table, and we are just seven points behind Liverpool in fourth place.
Yet again we were stalemated 0-0 at half-time, but just five minutes after the break Aubameyang got back to his goalscoring ways to put us 1-0 up, assisted by Thomas Partey, who was returning to the team after injury.
Ten minutes later our two super youngsters, Smith-Rowe and Saka, combined to double our lead and put the game beyond doubt, and our captain Aubameyang wrapped
It seems incredible that the Gunners can go seven games without winning, and then suddenly turn things around and win five in a row in the League, only conceding one goal in the process. To think that at Xmas there were many Arsenal fans calling for Arteta to be sacked or face relegation, so our coach is obviously happy with the turnaround in form.
Arteta told Arsenal.com after the game: “Yes I am really pleased with the performance overall because collectively and individually it was really strong from the beginning. It took us longer than we wanted to score the first goal because in the first half we had some big chances as well, but overall the team looked confident, looked solid, looked compact and very clear about what we had to do, defending and attacking, so I am really pleased with the clean sheet, the goals, and overall the run and the momentum we have.
“It is part of understanding these types of games, and when the team is able to come out of these games with this result and confidence, it helps a lot for the next one because they know that the moment is going to come, that we cannot lose our structure, our organisation. Of course there were things, that at half time, we had to improve and do better, to be more consistent, quicker, more efficient in certain moments to attack. This is great information for us and for them it is great to believe against these structures we can outplay them, we can nullify them to do very little in our own box and we can come out and score three, four or five goals.
“We always say that winning is the best thing for any collective team or any individual as well. But for us to get in the momentum that we are with the clean sheets – that was our fifth one in a row – we have managed to do that, the fact that we are scoring goals and everything is more fluent. The energy, the cohesion around the team and the spirit is better. So I’m glad, but we have to maintain that run and keep going. There are still a lot of things that we have to do better and improve but overall, I’m really pleased with how we’re playing at the moment.”
Has our defensive work been the base for our upturn in fortunes?
Patrick
Although he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves Holding deserves to take some credit for the improved defensive displays. He has been the one constant in defence throughout the run.
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Agree and I was impressed after reading about his contributions on/off the pitch,very good character he is the perfect example of being experienced doesn’t necessarily mean being older,keep up the good work Rob boy!
This is for you Uncle Sam, you said that we are embroiled in a relegation dog-fight with your team, forgetting that we are Arsenal Football Club. With all due respect, learn to keep your mouth shut some times, focus on the challenge before you and stay away from other people’s business, as a matter of interest, please tell me how many times you have beaten Arsenal Football Club in your career as a coach. Respects.
Like many fans on this site my frustration with MA was his reluctance to make the personnel changes needed which were obvious to us fans playing ESR and Co instead of sticking with players like Wilian whose first game was his only good performance Also his management of injured players rushing them back but the good thing is it looks like he’s learnt from these mistakes I was happy for TP being subbed off on the 70th minute and that this time he was given enough timeime to properly recover and Martinelli on the bench,I think it was Ozziegunner who made a very good comment about MA needing to have a settled first XI and then when the opportunity to rest players arises when the game is nearly won let use the subs I’m hoping that’s what MA is going to do from now also not being being afraid to drop big names if they don’t perform form should be a important factor when it comes to selection.
We have improved in big strides after returning to respect and engage midfield creativity – much like what ManU had done last January when they brought in B Fernandes.
Even Liverpool is jumping off their own #10-less bandwagon by recruiting Thiago.
Let’s hope we can continue the rise and snatch a CL place like ManU did last season.
Our next 7 EPL fixtures are:
Southampton (A)
Man U (H)
Wolves (A)
Aston Villa (A)
Leeds (H)
Man City (H)
Leicester (A)
Everyone about us has an equal/better goal difference and games in hand(including Villa behind us)…Let’s hope we can show some steel in the upcoming fixtures
Leaving aside the clear untruth that we have NOT won five successive Prem games (as this slapdash article chooses to say!), I do agree that any sound manager will always start with creating a sound defence, before any other area of the team.
MA has done this and at least two of the infamous three clowns at CB now seem to be out of the reckoning. Wrestler hopefully gone within days, Mustafi at worst only featuring if and when an injury crisis happens and Luiz leaving in June. All mercifully too!
I caution against false raised hopes of a much higher Prem position though. I see little real chance of top six and even top eight looks more unlikely than likely to my realistic mind.
Personally, I havelong accepted we are VERY unlikely to feature in either Europe comps next season and see benefits, as well as financial disadvantages in that likelihood.
Unlike so many on JA, I take a longer view and see definite progess under a manager whom I rate, probably more than any other Gooner seems to, judging by many hasty and premature comments, mostly from young fans. Quelle surprise!
Understand your views, but I kind of see an optimistic parallel with ManU last season, as DiDi mentioned. They were also down in the dumps but steadily climbed the table and reach CL places. While I think top 4 is unlikely, I think we can reach top 6 or 7-8 and maybe sneak runs in Europa and FA cup. Afterall, performance in the cups just means performance on the day, and we might be better as a cup team in the competitions, with european opposition particularly giving us more space then PL opponents.