It was an excellent day for Arsenal fans. Not only did we leapfrog West Ham into fifth but we also gained two points on all the teams ahead of us in the Premiership, and are now standing just three points behind Man United in Third Place.
Arsene Wenger was understandably pleased with a very hard-fought win. “We deserved to win the game.” he said. “It was a typical committed, direct game where we needed to be solid in the air, take our chances on the break. Unfortunately when they came back to 2-1, we had five or six chances on counter-attacks that we couldn’t take, but overall everybody did the job very well, from the ‘keeper to up front.
“With the ball I think we had a very different game today, but we always looked dangerous. We couldn’t finish the game off – it’s down to the quality of their goalkeeper. It’s down to sometimes missing our chances, sometimes as well maybe there was a player in a better position. Overall we created a lot of chances. When you look at the results today, there’s not too many goals. Forty-eight hours ago everyone played and of course that has a little impact.
“It was more fight than a creative game but you need to have that in England as well, especially when we played two days ago with 10 men for 40 minutes. When I looked at how much we gave physically against QPR, I was worried for today. We knew before the game that we had to dig deep to win because we were a bit jaded but we did that.”
The Arsenal boss also said that he has always been convinced that his team would climb back up to the Champions League positions. “I have always had that belief but it’s far from done.” he continued. “We just want to win the next game and be consistent in our performances. We were just caught by Liverpool in the last minute and today we won away from home.
“If you look at our recent results, we look to be more stable. We have a big game in front of us now against Southampton with nobody coming back. The players who played today have given their all and now we need to recover and prepare for the Southampton game.”
The Saints are Arsenal’s last obstacle to the Top Four and after giving Chelsea a run for their money yesterday will be no pushovers when we face them on Thursday, but we now have the momentum to push on, especially now we have Laurent Koscielny back to marshall our defence.
Onwards and upwards!
I hope we Wenger does the right thing in January, I really do. Yesterday, u could really see our midfield crying out for the presence of a “bulldog”.
Not really. If anything yesterday we missed a clear head and a clinical finisher. I think we pretty much bossed the midfield with Cazorla everywhere. Surprisingly we had more trouble on the flanks hence the substitutions Chambers and Gibbs.
No game is like the other though and probably a bulldog would be needed against teams who like to play on the break. Let’s see what gives but I do expect us to sign at least one CB.
BTW, Reid was shyte yesterday.
Yeah, very Shity, Reid.
Agreed regarding Reid. It would make interesting reading to list and review all the players the armchair experts on this site has been shouting and clamouring for over the past 18 months as the answer to all our woes. Wenger has been widely abused at the time for not taking “our” advice – and then, more often than not, for it to go eerily silent when it later appears that Wenger may have been right. Song and Reid are just the latest examples.
Coyg
…plus Schniderlin’s got a RED CARD
@hilz, may be he wants play for us, not against us..Lolz
COYB (Come On You Burnley)
Unleash theo 14
Great Win! The boys put in a shift…some brilliant individual play coupled with a satisfying team effort to win a tough fixture away from home.
Still have concerns for Wenger’s tactical approach as a manager though…while West Ham were open at the back piling bodies forward desperate for an equalizer we heap pressure on ourselves when Wenger brings on both Chambers and Gibbs for two attacking players (Welbz and the Ox) , totally killing our hopes of catching our opponents napping on the break. The same tactical shambles were used against liverfool who rightly punished us.
Wenger needs to think coz we could have easily won that game with at least a 3-1 scoreline had he brought on maybe theo/campbell and left one of our defensive changes on the bench. worst case scenario we could have easily picked up an injury to our already fragile defensive lines as these defensive players put bodies on the line in the dying minute goalmouth scramble.
Happy with the result, wish Wenger and Arsenal success but naive tactics will not go unpunished forever.
Tactics were spot on. You think it is due to the tactics that Welbeck, Sanchez or Ox can’t find the net from ideal positions?
Some people are unbelievable! Even when we win Wenger’s in the wrong.
Imagine if he’d put on Walcott and/or Podolski and WHU had got equalizer – he’d have been wrong again. Hindsight is a wonderful skill which we all have – coz we’re never wrong.
Managing and motivating an EPL team successfully year on year is a skill only a handful possess.
COYG
I dislike attitude of some fans. We slate our players too much (even in a win) that they can lose confidence. Spur them up. We won and some sai WHU played better. Yes, I rather take that than playing better and lose. At the end of a match others talk about who won. I rather have 2-1 to Arsenal in all the remaining matches and win something than 5-0 in some and 0-5 in others and win nothing except No. 4.
I fail to see any WHU player that was better than any of our boys yesterday. Adrien was their MOTM but he was par with Szceszny. WHU is just an average team, hyped by the media just as Villa was when we silenced them. And the fact that their manager does not know what offside is says a lot about them.
If anything we made life harder for us and I want to see us having a stronger defense so that I don’t have to bite my nails in the injury time. Or at least a clinical finisher to bury the chances (the clear ones, I am ok with that) we create.
schneirdelin,s red card might just be a coincidence or we,re just wishing he doesn,t want to play against his future teammates /employers!!
which one is it??
by the way song deserves a mention for not celebrating his disallowed goal i think he showed class!!
I hate those who blame the boys even when they did everything right. From which area on earth do say that we had a bad game? If so, how did we win?? Tge best team won and thats Arsenal. We want to win evry game by all means whether playing attractive football or rugby. The boys did a fantastic job and im happy foy them kip it up lads. Abd those who are slicing Wenger, i tell you keep off. If you keep on praising our opponents, better join them and make noise fro their yard, period. Let Le Prof do his work the way he knows best. Were you waiting for him to pay the loans for the emirates Stdium then you chase him away? Who could hv kept us at the top four for all this period?? This is the only season that we are not servicing the loans and we can buy the best players available. Keep cool.
Arsenal have tough 3 matches
Away Southampton
home Stoke (Stoke causes us problems and sometimes injuries)
Away City
If we can get 5 points we will be lucky. I will be very happy if we can get 7 or higher
West ham played well.But at the end of the day we could have been into double figures if it wasn’t for the west ham G.K