Nightmare start, bad luck and brilliant comeback gives Arsenal draw

I had some sympathy for Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal players due to the circumstances of tonight’s away game against AFC Bournemouth, with the fixture schedule going against the Gunners and being made worse by our long injury list, Ozil’s continued illness and Elneny going to play for Egypt.

THat left the Arsenal bench ooking pretty threadbare and Wenger had to turn to it early when Coquelin went off with what looked like a hamstring problem. Despite all that I felt that we only had ourselves to blame after finding ourselves down and out and 2-0 down at the break.

Bellerin was the main culprit on the first goal as he left Daniels in acres of space and then made an awful attempted tackle but there was also no pressure on the player crossing to him and that was typical as the home team were brighter and better in every way from the very start.

A clumsy looking tackle from Xhaka was penalised with a penalty and second goal and I had no complaints about that until an almost identical and even more blatant push by Fraser on Bellerin in the build up to their 58th minute third went unpunished.

It just seemed as though everything was going against Arsenal as well as us playing badly but then cae a very spirited fightback. Giroud teed up Alexis to head home in the 70th minuted before a stunning Lucas Perez goal got us right back in it.

A red card for Francis added to the hope and Arsenal gave it everything and continued to threaten and in the second of six injury time minutes the scorpion kick hero and late goal specialist Giroud heaed us level, almost unbelievably.

What a game, what a comeback.

Bob.

60 Comments

    1. The turning point of the game was taking off Koscielny, as the leader of the team he had to fall on his sword for such abysmal performance, but I just wish Wenger will measure himself with the same yardstick and take responsibility for the team’s failures when like Koscielny today, he fails to motivate his players, it is no coincidence that Mustafi has still not lost a game with us, it’s called leadership!!

      1. Watch the game again. I like Mustafi but he was horrible out there tonight. Hopefully it’s just ring rust but I’d like to see him start against Preston to make sure it’s out of his system.

        1. It’s not always about being the best player on the pitch, Koscielny played a decent game but as captain, he was horrible today hence why he had to fall. The rest of the team upped their game the moment the captain was taken off uninjured, the message was clear, no one’s guaranteed a spot, if our dearest manager let that resonate with the players more often, we’ll win crucial games more often, simples. Complacency is our biggest problem.

  1. C**p performance. 2 points dropped. This time tomorrow we will be drifting 11 points behind Chelsea, and if not, then Spurs will leapfrog us.

    Perez scored a cracker, surely he must be benched from now on!

    Bellerin had the worst match of his career. Well it happens, cheer up lad.

    MOTM goes to Giroud and Sheep of the Match goes to Wenger. Absolutely clueless throughout the match. No urgency, no pep talks (obviously), no tactics at all. You would think if manager gets paid 9 millions a year, he would know how to handle and prepare for matches. But no. He looks like he is there to collect his wages. OUR WAGES.

    1. The ref did everything right today except from not giving a foul at Bournemouth’s third goal. What is missing from this side at times is the desire to win and the belief in ourselves. After Sanchez’s goal we played a lot better and at the end we maybe even deserved to win. I liked the 4-1-3-2 formation we used since Lucas came on. MOTM for me Giroud for picking 2 assists and scoring the winning goal.

  2. When Pundits, Opponents and Other football stakeholders say we will not win the league, we get angry.
    I don’t know why we should be 3goals down in the first place.
    The league is Chelsea’s to win or lose. Not even Liverpool can win it with that inconsistency.

  3. giroud stop the fourth goal by is present he was in the box alone with the player now you see why giroud is our second best player not ozil only he an sanchez could influence such a come back

  4. steel showed by our boys, great fightback but wenger has thrown away the league, no point arguing for and against – its done
    we have talked ramsey a million times, the lack of cazorla replacement, giroud- just save it.
    support them through thick or thin
    hope he leaves with his head held high , should be proud of his achievements, will wait and support patiently until allegri or someone equally exciting comes with fresh ideas and fresh insight

    1. When it is referred to in footbal as showing steel it means strong defensively. Arsenal don’t have steel.

  5. Words can not express what I feel right now… I don’t know if I should be happy or angry.

    1. Me am angry. I can only spare OG, Sanchez, Perez and who again? Gabriel.
      They rescue a point. But a point isn’t enough.
      It wasn’t any of the top rivals that we played. We lost 2 points

  6. Wonder what Wengers excuse will be? He can’t use fatigue as the second half showed, we had plenty of energy left.
    How on earth we can come out to a match again looking really slow and demotivated, only the team knows, but it happens so regularly, that it is the managers responsibility and apparently he can’t stop it from happening.
    More energy and more will from Bournemouth for the first hour was so apparent, that it is criminal.

  7. Same old Arsenal, just cannot perform for 90 minutes, we’re a one half team! How many times have we put in a 45 minutes like we saw in the first half? And as usual Arsenal start to play once a game is almost out of reach. Amazing we got a draw in the end, considering how bad we were at 3-0.

    Although Ramsey didn’t have a particularly bad game, what did he do? He really is a bad omen for us. Xhaka’s looking like an expensive flop, which is a shame as I’m a fan of his, and was pleased Wenger signed him. Ox should never start for us as well. He can be deadly coming on for last 25 minutes or so, but often flops when started. Cech not great again, and has he ever even saved a pen for us?

    Great comeback, but shambolic for the most part.

    1. About time people realise that Xhaka is a big liability… Too slow for the premier league.. We do not need another five years of a player as slow as Mertesacker or Arteta! Hasn’t wenger learned anything.. And I can’t believe Wenger didn’t scout this guys lack of pace!!!!

    2. You’ve summed up Ramsey the past several seasons. He doesn’t do anything wrong, he just doesn’t do anything right. He’s pretty useless.

    3. My bad, the Ox didn’t start. I thought he did because he came on so early. I think I was in shock as it wasn’t the 65 min haha

  8. I don’t know what to say. Something about the team setup was off today. The jury is still out on Xhaka if you ask me.

      1. Xhaka is okay we’ve lacked such aggression in the spine of the team for years!
        Ramsey is the real fall guy, can’t attack, can’t really defend and can’t ever score

    1. Give him time, he has the quality and that is undeniable. We have seen have have mostly good games so far and a couple shocking ones like today. He definitely needs to improve on his decision making when it comes to tackles, that is his main if not only weakness.

      1. Xhaka only shines when we have the ball. But when he’s on the back foot, he struggles terribly. Against attacking sides like Bayern, he’s going to get terribly exposed.

        1. you’re getting thumbed down because its a sin to say anything about pretty boy Xhaka. Has a long ways to go until he’s Arsenal quality.

  9. you fool’s still think arsenal make a come back with ten men they still could score five are six goals there manager let us off the hook by start defending there three goal. leed

  10. Feeling too many emotions right now, i have no clue how to feel but one thing is for sure, PLEASE KEEP RAMSEY ON THE BENCH TO COME ON AS A SUB FOR THE LAST 5MN OF THE GAME.

  11. let us not celebrate this draw.At the end we dropped 2 points and not gained 1. Credit to Bournmoth for playing an open football but they were really unfortunate to not win. As always we have been the luckiest side this season and I like that but what’s the point of we are just going to fight for top 4 with that luck. Title gone and we could be out of top 4 by tomorrow. Pathetic

  12. Sporting arsenal is like having an ugly girlfriend. U know she’s all I’ve got in your room but u can’t take her out to meet friends who will definitely mock u
    #wenger out

  13. Bournmouth stopped pressing after the third. There subs helped us, our subs helped us. Atleast now you how good Perez is in the first 11.

    Sanchez, Welbeck, Perez in any order in the front three. Or else go to 4-4-2. We were playing 2-4-4 in the last 20 minutes.

    Why was Giroud celebrating at 3-3 instead of taking the ball back to the centre?

  14. There is no team worse than Arsenal when we dont have possession. At times you would think we had a man less.

    1. So true. Same old problem with Wenger. Last 3 away games – 1 point and seven goals scored against us. You don’t need to be a genius to see, where the real problem is. The manager simply can’t make the whole team fight and defend like a real top team.

  15. I just saw a comment.
    Cech not great again.
    I moaned slot about why we kept starting Cech who always gets beaten at his near post.
    I mean hu does dat. Wat De f*ck are u thinking Cech.
    Near post is near post. U should cover dat place better.
    Beard Leno or Jefferson will do us all of good.
    Winter buys
    1.leno
    2.ante coric perfect cazorla replacement
    3.payet
    Sell Ramsey loan iwobi
    Period

  16. It speaks volumes of how incapable we are as fans and as a club. I see people celebrating this. What is wrong with you lot?! I don’t even want to bother with emphasising at how pointless this fightback was. It gives Wenger an upper hand to boast about how combative we are as a team and that we we’ll be ready to move to the next level the coming season. ENOUGH of this drama already!!! Save your grace and depart at the earliest. Arsenal FC has become an official circus now! Shameful.

  17. Big ups to Super lamp post,Two assists and a goal.
    I think that draw from 3 nil down will dampen the anger that was vented early… Well just a little bit.
    The highlight of the night for me was seeing Ramsey laying on the deck, I really did have my hopes up, for all the while that he wasn’t moving. ?
    Maybe next time lol ?

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger puts out a stronger team for the Fa cup game against Preston.

    1. I was alarmed for a second when he lay still. Thank goodness he got back to breathing and bossing it once more!

  18. Same old Arsenal. Only make an effort when it’s too late. Why can’t we start matches with that intensity?

  19. No amount of nurturing will make a Dog roar like Lion, Our Boys think they have come back against Barcelona and they started celebration instead of worried on winning it once and 4 all. what it is not in present Arsenal DNA can not get there overnight and that thing is Champion and Pride.

  20. Am I allowed to just laugh. What else can we do as fans. Out of the title race once again, going absolutely nowhere for 12 years running. But we still got Arsenal fans digging for excuses. All around pathetic performance. Besides for Alexis these players just don’t care, and nor does Wenger who at the end of the day is getting 8mill to do nothing.

    1. I was pleasantly surprised by OGs MOTM interview, in which you could see that he genuinely wasn’t happy with the result and the performance of the team. He could’ve papered over, but he didn’t.

  21. I really want Arsene to win the league with Arsenal but I am sorry.. Arsenal won’t win the league with Wenger.

    Chelsea will win the league. Even when we have the chance to close the gap, we bottle things up..

    1. It’s no coincidence that our performance went from challengers to bottlers as soon as we touched the top of the premier league.

  22. Wenger has tried Ramsey in every position he can play on the pitch, and he has excelled in none of them. The reason why BM were so effective in midfield was because Ramsey allowed them. He didn’t close down, defend or distribute, and even most of his passes were back or sideways, and goal attempts which all our forwards would score, were off target. He also seems to be at odds with the rest of the team with AS7 heavily criticising him on pitch. I think he needs time out to think where he wants to be, because at the moment I’m dreading every game he starts.

  23. The reason we dropped points today is cos of Wenger starting XI selection.

    1.Ramsey is in terrible form now even for midfield,how much more playing him as a winger.

    2. Alexis needs to play centrally as its more difficult to score from the Leftwing.

    3. u don’t start Giroud against a side that hold possession n you need to hit on the counter. he doesn’t have pace to do that n that made us look headless till Lucas came in.
    we were so blunt offensively.

    Alexis should be reinstated as the starting striker/false9 or at least Welbz/Lucas.
    Giroud is best from the bench in games as this.
    n Ramsey shouldn’t start any EPL or UCL game for Arsenal till he picks form. probably not the FACUP game too cos he is in so terrible form

    Lucas should start more games n play more often.

      1. that is what misleads some fans n Wenger.. Giroud shouldn’t start games for Arsenal and if he must start not these kinda games, it’s games against bus-parkers.
        part of the reason our defence sufffered today was cos our attack wasn’t working, this put the pressure on us instead of the other way round.

  24. if you have a 3 goal lead and end up w a draw, its shocking… so why is it if you are down by 3 goals and draw it is suppose to be fantastic? A sunday match and tuesday away match is a tough match, i guess a draw then is a bit more acceptable, but still some players were exposed. Bellerin was aweful, just a bad day at the office. Xhaka,,,, when would just pushing a player over in the box be a good idea. It was not even a mistake, it was stupid. Everytime I see it over its worse. Sanchez never quit, Perez changed the pace of the match, Mustafi was rusty… Next match. Do not be surprised if we do not finish 4th, this yr none of the Big clubs are aweful, opposite of last year…

  25. Tougher tests awaits Chelsea….and Arsenal have to look at themselves. The game against Crystal Palance still shows we struggle against a fighting team. Bournemouth will give us that fight and they won’t rollover easily. If we are not careful, they might get a draw from this game. That is why we have to play Alexis up front in this game, we need pace and quick passing to beat this type of buggy team.

    Oh, I forgot the game has been played already. It is now clear to me Wenger doesn’t analyze the opposition before he puts out his team. Watch this space for the Chelsea game……revenge of the blue whale.

  26. I`m still awaiting moderation from my last comment, forget it, I won`t make anymore comments and I promise to go to church, if that is politically correct, acceptable and non offensive.
    Words fail me. I was serving in a mans world (the R.N.) at fifteen not this PC pansy world. But that was when football was also for men.

    1. You’re comment was moderated automatically because it contained a swearword. This is a family friendly website so if you don’t want to be moderated then simply don’t swear….

  27. I am not happy abt wat happened to us, some blame manager, I think Bellerin our best right full back cost us d game, two out of the three goals were his fault. N no manager ll start d game without him. It happens that day was a bad day for us, some OG shouldn’t start, No! Giroud started three games he scored in all d games, n some assists. Liverpool also lost to dem in their home,

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