It is very hard to find any positives for Arsenal after seeing us taken to the cleaners by Stoke City, a team we should beat but just cannot seem to manage it at the Britannia stadium. The fact that their fans love to taunt Arsene Wenger, Aaron Ramsey and now every other Gunner just makes handing them a victory feel even worse.
But there are some positives to be taken from yesterday’s game and our French midfielder Mathieu Flamini identified one of them in his comments after the match, as reported by Arsenal.com. While the 30-year old was devastated by the team’s limp first half display and apologised profusely to the Arsenal fans for it, he rightly pointed out that the Gunners were much better in the second half.
The spirit and fight that the Arsenal players showed to almost comeback is certainly encouraging and should help us to avoid any more of those heavy defeats that were so painful for us last season.
Flamini said, “[We can’t defend like that], we have no excuses. We came here and wanted to come back with the three points, especially when we were coming back from a good run of games, but today we did not start the game well at all.
“We conceded a goal after [19] seconds and after that we had an opportunity to come back into the game but we couldn’t score. We are very upset with ourselves and very sorry for our fans, who travelled here.
“It is a difficult day for us, the only positive thing today is the character we showed, because we didn’t give up, we pushed it until the last minute. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to get the draw.
“It’s not easy to come here and today Stoke played a great game, they have been very strong physically and they defended well.
“Our mistake was to concede a goal stupidly and too early in the game, after it’s difficult when you’re 3-0 down. Like I said, the positive thing was that we didn’t give up but once again we’re really sorry to the fans who travelled here today.”
The comeback was not the only positive from the game though, because I have found two more. Firstly and the way things have been going it is quite important, no more Arsenal players were added to the injury list. With the way Stoke play, especially against us, that could easily have happened and that was the last thing we needed.
The other positive is that Wenger acknowledged that he simply did not have the defenders to cope with Stoke and if he needed any reminding, this game will surely have confirmed to the manager that he needs to do some transfer business in the January window.
If he does go and sign a top quality centre back and a defensive midfielder, will that painful defeat by Stoke have been worth it?
Ramsey is on the scoresheet again, that’s the only positive I can take from yesterday, let’s hope for a repeat of last season from now on.
I f@ckin care about positives untill I see real steeel added in the centre of the midfield.
WeLcome to the wengeritic worLd where “POSITIVE” is attributed to a big, fat LOSS
I think ramsey,carzola on the scoresheet and of course, flamini played very well at right back.
Does is it really positive? For me he should concentrate more to helping our inexperienced defence next to Flamini. He is not a striker and he is out of form completely but he keeps his place in starting 11 and after 13 games he scored. Sorry but for me it is not positive.
I’ve read this article and I truly don’t understand how I can take some positives from this game. Listen I feel sorry for Wegner but I just can’t defend him anymore. I will never wish my team to lose, or injury to the players I don’t like but I won’t blind myself anymore either. After Kalstroom can we really expect Wegner to buy DM or Defender in January I don’t see it.
” After Kalstroom can we really expect Wegner to buy DM or Defender in January I don’t see it”.
The question is not even so much about whether he will bring in someone. It is about the quality of the signing and whether the signing will truly fill the teams need for defensive solidity. Will Wenger be willing to sanction spending upwards of 20/25 million on a single player? If that is the price worth of needed quality available in the market (which is usually the case by the way)? Will he opt for lesser quality because it is cheaper? Or will he just play everyone until the last day of the window, and gamble once again (as we are used to seeing him do often)?
In our heart of hearts, we all know the most probable answers to these questions.
Wenger admitting he didn’t have the defenders to cope shows that he has become incapable of making decisions
He Sold Vermaelen without replacing (I’m sure he didn’t forsee his injury) and loaned Jenkison. To make things worse, llWenger placed players in the wrong positions like Monreal and didn’t use Chambers enough as CB or utilizing Bellerin enough.
The positive Is outweighed by Wenger’s sheer incompetence
“If he does go and sign a top quality centre back and a defensive midfielder….”
I pity any one that is resting his hope on Arsene Wenger buying a top quality signing (talk much of 2!) in January.
January 31st 2015, you will quote me.
Westham has gone into 3rd spot after beating swansea! This tells our standard of football can be summed up as mediocre!
Even west ham has gone above us! Whats wrong with this picture? Very sad!
Good article…
westham demoLished a swansea (oh! Please don’t tell me bout fabianski’s red….it won’t save ur side of the story) who were capable of overturning a 3 goaL deficit against an 11 man Arsenal team….. Does this tell u something?
i’m in a mix……… Can’t really recall the swansea game FT scores ….L()L
but i recall vividly SIGURDSSON and GOMIS finding out net
A lot of very delusional supporters on this site that can’t face the truth that arsenal has problems!
@greg
No one here is in denial as to our situation dude. And why should it worry you if they are. Do you and let that be all which should concern you…
I wonder if these wenger supporters will still glorify him if we dont get a top 4 spot?
If arsene wenger doesn’t buy a defender and a dm for arsenal in de January transfer window , i will take my life savings from the bank , buy plane tickets from Accra to London and give him twelve lashes on the back. Am sure after that his senses will come to life
And after taking your life savings from the bank just to give Wenger the lashes, I hope your senses come back to life..LOL Kidding bro. I’m not an AKB, I just want the best for this club…I think he should take a bow or do what needs to be done for the club to succeed.
I think the major positive is that
apart from City and Chelsea
every other team is battling.
I thnk we will finish top 4
because as Shearer says “it’s what we do”.
Pesonally I would prefer we wait till the
summer and have a big clear out.
Mertesacker 9 mill Flamini Rosicky Arteta (past it)
Podolski 10m Campbell 7m Coquelin Ryo (not up to it)
Diaby Sanogo Walcott 25 m Wilshere 20 m (injury prone)
Ozil 32m (Wants out)
95 mill Sold players +
50 mill Seasons profits.
145 mill. Spending.
110 mill on CB’s and DM’s LB
35 mill on midfielders.
25 man squad
Szcz Martinez Ospina.
Debuchy Chambers Jenkinson Loan Bellerin.
Gibbs Monreal new LB
3 new CB’s
2 new DM’s
Ramsey , 2 new MF’s.
Ox Sanchez Gnabry Cazorla
Giroud Wellbeck. Afobe Akpom
@davidnz
Sounds reasonable…
We just need 3 more POSITIVES and the league is our!
Come on you Positives!
Na na nana naaaaa positivessss!
Buahahahahahahaha………. CB positives and DM positives
Actually the come back wasn’t a positive because it began once the game was effectively over. In fact we were nearly 4-0 down when the come back started.
I’ve seen this so many times under Wenger. We start badly, especially in the big games, we fight back and finish the stronger team, but in the end it’s always too little too late. It’s always the same the Europe as well. More or less lose the tie in the 1st leg, perform much better in the 2nd leg, but still go out.
I would prefer a manager who knows the meaning of the word motivation, and who gets the players so fired up before a game, that we start strong instead of weak.
I like your analyses of the so called “positives” in fact there are no positives when we keep loosing to the sides which we could have possibly beaten them. It looks like there are highly mental erosion coming through our fans, how could anyone find positives when loosing to a team like Stoke?. Can anyone reminds me if there are any Chelsea fan or the manager ( I mean the special one) talking positives after the Newcastle game?. Why you arsenal fans who by then you were the strongest in the world? why? what happened to you with your manager ( I mean the special in failure)?.
Ok for me, i found one strong reason why we lost to Stoke which is also known to you but you intentionally avoid talking about it. the reason is the starting lineup with Giroud upfront. If you correctly assessed the game especially at first half, it was very slow and that was due to the fact that Giroud was very slow, he didn’t provides a room for our midfielders to attack with high pacy, and this was the case in last season maybe some of you have forgotten. Regardless of how poor our defense were, if we started our games with Welbeck we could have been able to attack them with high speed and that could have reduced their composure. So dear if at all we want to wins our coming matches we need to be honest and admit that Welbeck is our only proper striker right now, even if he does not score many of his chances, still he can provides what the team needs (speed) and plus he is a good team player.
Guys, it was simply too cold yesterday for our £8 mil manager to stand up and give instructions to the team. Instead, he was huddled there on the bench, in his jacket, pretending to be some sort of expert, trading war stories with steve bould.
Mark Hughes on the other hand (in just his suit), stood there on the technical area and acted like a real manager. £8 mil and sitting down like a clown. Joke of a manager!!
Boycott the next home game!! That will create the ripple effect to change at this club. It will send a very strong statement of intent to the board & shareholders, ultimately putting pressure on the manager. There is no other way, it is the only form of demonstration that is tried and tested with efficiency.
I think that is the best even the fans should ask for a refund of their money from the season ticket if wenger remains there
Nobody can argue the fact that we OWN 4th place, baby. Sir Alex, Mourinho didn’t own 4th place like Wenger did. Actually they never got 4th place
I have said it before and I am repeating it again now and will still say it if nothing is done over it. And we continue to be in this state of mediocrity. I said Arsenal need another Sol Campbell in the heart of the Gunners defense line. And also need a stronger than Patrick Veira in the heart of their midfield. If the boss can find their likes and can afford what they will cost, let the boss please go and get them. Meanwhile the Gunners should not use the excuse of lack of top class CB and CDM in the team to continue with their mediocre state of playing. They should rediscover their best form and makes it count by winning every game they will play before the CB&CDM join them.
Just a video of wenger being abused by fans, the wenger out just faced wenger and called him all names it shocking and disrespectfull.if this how things should be then let it be till the board act
Shocking to hear that…double his salary to £16m to compensate for hurt feelings!
@nikk this is just a start of what is to come, i just hope he will be able to defend himself as he always does
Just Saw
Dont worry he has got 8 years of practice…nothing phases him! He is a survivor…he just needs to sign some positives from somewhere but off course, goes without saying, at a right price!
The only positive is that Liverpool and Spurs overall form this year has been erratic, therefore, arsenal chances of finishing in the top four remains high. I also disagree with Mr Wenger spending 16 million on Welbeck,when you already have Poldolski on enormous wages £135,000 per week sitting on a bench, in addition to him you have Sanchez, Sanogo and Campbell who could all play that position. That transfer fee would have been best spent on a pacy central defender.
For Arsenal to move forward wenger most go if not Arsenal is playing their last champions league cos they will end up in top eight.wenger is lost interms of technical and tactics ability he’s very far behind other managers and also he doesn’t reason well again
Just need to say this to those that decided to abuse the team at the train station, your a disgrace to the club and in no way do you represent genuine Arsenal supporters, I mean I thought United fans were expectant petulant sh**bags, but this just showed the rest of the country how low we’ve sunk. Well done lads, well done! Way to make the team feel even better about the current situation.
There are no positives to take from that match! Why, after the last lot of calamitous defensive performances, have we resorted to defending like a Sunday league team again?! What’s positive about being 3-0 down at half time and then having a bit of a fight back in the second half? Why could that not be done from the start? What’s positive about losing? I really despair. Once again Stoke out bullied us and Wenger had no answer.