Premier League results keep BIG pressure on Arsenal

There was very little for Arsenal fans to cheer about in the Premier League tonight. The only result that did Arsene Wenger and the Gunners any favours at all was the Southampton game against West Ham at St. Mary’s which ended in a draw.

That takes the Saints a point above the Gunners and they still have a slightly better goal difference than us. And with Man United managing to beat Burnley at Old Trafford, that drops us out of the top four again and piles the pressure on for what is looking like the closest and most contested race for the final Champions League places ever.

At least the performance of United under Louis van Gaal was poor again and you would hope that they start to get punished for being so bad, although Arsenal were not exactly fantastic yesterday. On the whole though I think we have been better than them and it is inconsistency rather than just being rubbish which has cost us.

Southampton are becoming a real worry though and will be gutted to not take advantage after West Ham had their keeper sent off and Arsenal should be breathing a big sigh of relief that the Hammers held on because Southampton could be the team we need to beat to finish fourth.

And any Arsenal fans that were still looking up can pack it in now after Chelsea and Man City both won. So will we get the Wenger trophy again this season? And will that be enough if we do not get another trophy?

Tags Southampton United Wenger

41 Comments

    1. True, the pressure is bigger after today’s matches. But the pressure has always been there with those needless draws we had at the beginning of the season. Every point and every goal is crucial, time to really step up to the task.

      1. against pool and spuds, we gave away goals in last 5 mins. thats got to stop. good news: we’re scoring more from corners. bad news: we’re still letting in goals from corners.

    1. gained pts on southampton: thats big.
      i think those 5 wins prior to spuds were too much too quick & got to our head. i suspect wenger is not great at getting his players motivated : definitely spuds wanted it more. then we were tired versus leicester. no excuses versus boro.

  1. We just have to keep up the pressure by winning our games, remaining consistent will be a big factor now, if we want to get a top four place!

    1. Not looking good then based on that summary. Consistency has hardly been our thing.

      Still let’s be ‘hopeful!’

  2. Top four is more vital than ever, with the money being slapped about now, teams are playing better than ever. We need to step up right now.

    1. And it’s a lot down to new and younger managers. Wenger has done wonders, but now like Fergy time to step back and let new ideas and game plans take over. CB

  3. LOL @ the Wenger trophy! Sure hope so. I was definitely peeved when I saw Willian’s strike slide in, to the great disappointment of good ol’ Timmy Howard. Hopefully we can shake some points off Manure and that team from West London in April and May. COYG!!!

  4. I personally think 3rd is our best hope and to be fair if we achieved that and retained the fa cup that alone would be an improvement on the previous 10 seasons. Any progress beyond the next round of the champions league should also be looked at as improvement. But to be totally honest overhauling the 2 money bag clubs, is probably unachievable under our current regime.

    1. All of that makes sense.

      The good news……. Arsenal are steadily moving up to overtake Southampton. Only 1 point behind and minus 2 goal differential. Also, keep in mind SH goal differential was boosted from a single 8-0 win.

    2. That’s exactly right Atid,and it’s not just the transfer money it’s what the player can ask for on top and 200 K a week. Arsenal and the other top half can’t come close to that, that’s why we hope the young ones coming through make it like Coquelin,Akpom Oxy Bellerin Ramsey Even Fabagas Van Persi came through and we made money on them. It’s about balancing the books. Chelsea,City even Unted can pay 200k for a player and sit him on the bench so when a player gets injured the team is never weakend Must be nice eh. CB

  5. Gunners just need to perform in the coming weeks and continue to utilize the good form of Cazorla and Ozil. Walcott are Giroud are scoring and Coq is doing a decent job. Just need to keep the defense reasonably tight. (Be nice to get Ox back).

    Also the Gunners have a very favorable schedule remaining. Southampton and especially ManU appear to have much tougher schedules going forward.

    1. Yeh but appearances can be deceiving.

      Wenger just needs to let the boys we must win every game from here on in. You know, put a bloody poster up of the invincibles in the colney and before games and point at it nodding his head.

      1. Yes and put a picture up of Bully
        from ArsenalfanTV after the Spurs game.
        Stop the players wages completely,
        make them walk to training in the rain
        and make them live in dark grimy bed sits
        with no power till they win the EPL again.
        Sound fair?

        1. I think your being too soft on them.
          I’d make them all wear similar coats to Wenger’s morning, noon and night until they secure 4th spot.

          And if not roll them all off the cliffs of the White cliffs of Dover.

        2. I think your being too soft on them.
          I’d make them all wear similar coats to Wenger’s morning, noon and night until they secure 4th spot.

          And if not roll them all off the White cliffs of Dover.

        3. And make em carry out the goal posts and put them up. And wash down from the outside tap. Crikey did I use to do that, and loved it just to play the game. CB

  6. The two imposters appropriately
    strangled each other to death tonight.
    Small fry Sotn and WH have battled
    gamely but are now being squeezed out by the main bunch.
    The two oil clubs squelch their slimy way forward
    while Venger and Fun gaal drag their spoilt brats into the top 4.
    Liverpool and Spurs battle on in the wannabee league.
    The rest of the league is either preparing for next season
    or dancing with relegation. Normal service is resuming
    And so it was in the beginning now and evermore. ZZZZZZZZZZZ

  7. I really think the City game is deluding us, we had something like 34% possession and created nothing in open play while City had like 20 shots on target and had all the territory… The Spuds game proved that we caught City at the best time where they are struggling for confidence and are missing Yaya to drive that static midfield of theirs..

    As I said after that game, the only reason City were toothless was that they played 2 holding midfielders that are exactly the same, Fernandinho and Fernando are technically poor and can’t create for toffee, but if City had Yaya Toure in that midfield to absolutely bully the likes of Cazorla, Ramsey and The Coq it would have been a completely different game, City lost that Box to Box energy Yaya gives them and that played right into our hand as they were static in midfield..

    But when we came up against dynamic high energy midfielders in Liverpool, Southampton, Spuds and even Leicester that rushed, closed and pressed up all over the pitch we could not handle it. We are giving so much possession away to even poor team now days, Villa and even Leicester dominated us and I am not comfortable with it now.

    I say we are not good enough sitting back as we don’t have the personnel to do so, we have small technically good offensive players that can’t do defending or high intensity football, we always struggle when we are denied space.

    I say in the summer we should get at least another strong DM and a dynamic B2B player like Sissokho, we need some muscle in our team…

  8. Just for fun…….I came up with a quick ranking system for difficulty of schedule remaining. 2 points for playing any of the top 7 teams fighting for the top 4 places. 1 point for mid-table teams and 2 points for involvement in any other competitions.

    Actually Southampton then Arsenal have the easier schedules.
    Chelsea, ManCity and Liverpool in the middle.

    Only ManU and Spurs have the significantly more difficult schedules.

    Again, just for fun.

    1. Arsenal has the best schedule I reckon.
      As long as long as we beat Liverpool
      Everton + Westham at home even losing
      to Utd (A) and a draw with Chelsea (H)
      won’t stop us being 4th place Chumpions.
      Start panning I mean planning the 4th place
      Champions party now 🙂
      As Robbie from arsefantv says
      We Gooner do it 🙂

      1. We need to aim for third not fourth. Then Wenger will get his excuse for early next season.

        ‘We need to qualify fo Champions League to get quality’

        Then when we drop points early

        ‘We also played 2 qualifying games, so we are fatigue.’

  9. The fixtures go for us in the next couple matchdays. I’m confident we will be third within the next two league games. Although thats on paper. What Arsenal will turn up? I don’t know. What I do know is that the hungry players must start.

    1. when players like rambo come back from injury (esp those that missed the learning moment against soton) its actually quite a risk for us . walcott doesnt do defence : he wasnt at soton. if wilshere has any smarts left in him, he’ll grab the b2b role with gusto and make the most of the missing ramsey. remember last season: ramsey & wilshere couldnt play together. so its good that we have both of them bc bewtween them there’s 1 fit player. what i see as a risk is caz and ozil getting in each other’s way. maybe caz can do the b2b thing. and ozil in the hole.

  10. We can do it, we just need to arrive to each game and put the effort in, which we didn’t last night, even though the referee was shocking.

    I was looking for stats as to how far each player ran, on both sides, as it looked like Leicester ran twice the distance we did, and to claim we were exhausted after that display on Saturday, when we didn’t turn up again is woeful, but unfortunately couldn’t find any.

    I have the feeling that Rambo hadn’t fully recovered when he came back, which was why his performances have been so awful, and he has barely been able to last 60 mins in all games, after which he had to be virtually carried off – hence being where we are now with him. If players aren’t ready they shouldn’t play. We had cover for Rambo so he didn’t need to play every game, or indeed any.

    It would make sense if Alexis was on the bench for Saturday, and brought on if it looks like we’re labouring. Players like Alexis need a bit more protection from some referees. He has been battered since he arrived, and must be a bit of a shock from playing in la Liga. I don’t mind fouls where players are going for the ball, but where players are hacked down to prevent a possible advantage and there has been no effort made to touch the ball, like the
    Ospina foul last night, I believe that is much more of a red card offence, than bringing down the last player, when an attempt has been made to go for the ball and narrowly missing.

    1. I agree. Keep Alexis on Bench. Don’t start him. We are home to Middlesbrough, so hopefully (fingers crossed) we won’t need him. However, we have learnt that lower league teams are tough and capable of upsets.

      We have PL matches and Monaco that we need Alexis for. It seems right to only use him if needed on Weekend

  11. Meh it wouldn’t be so bad if we missed out on 4th. The cash reserves are there as a contingency, maybe it causes a shake up and gets in a manager with higher ambitions than just to win the “wenger cup” every season, which as usual is all we can shoot for and no longer is this even guaranteed.

    1. totally agree..

      we need to rebuild and start from somewhere…..

      most rebuilding starts from ground zero…

      we have to sacrifice something to gain something for a long run…

      guess its time we sacrifice the champ league for a season or 2

      get a new manager.. clear the deadwoods.. strengthen the squad

      and we are good to go…

  12. I personally feel the best things that can happen to this club is to miss out on top 4. This would wipe the smug look off our manager and put pressure on him more than ever but the problem is we WILL make top 4.

      1. What are you talking guys, top 4 is a must. You would not be having players like Alexis if we miss out on top 4. Arsenal are targeting Morgan Shliderine in the summer, if the saints get top 4 and we don’t, do you think he wiil join us? .
        ManU some how managed to pull Di Maria and Falco. But that mostly they paid extra ordinary money. We are a rich club but not that rich.
        To compete with Chelsea and City next season, we needs to keep on adding world class players who will only join if they can play CL footballs.
        This team is not far behind. We need two world class addition to be on top.
        Lets get behind the team. The team was playing superbly just before the spurs game.
        If we had Alexis and OX, thngs might have been different. Injuries really hampered us this season. Get behind the team.
        Need to put on a good show against Middleburg

          1. Schneiderlin and Lacazette. £50 mil.

            Podolski not doing us any favours at Inter by playing crap. We need to sell him, but his wages and poor form may not help.

    1. It will put immense pressure on Wenger, but there will be many negative consequences – 1.) We might struggle to bring in top players as CL is a drawing card for any top player. 2.) Our current top players might want out, just imagine if we lose Alexis or Ozil. If one leaves, it normally starts a trend. 3.) the money we gain from being in the CL indirectly funds our transfer kitty, allowing us to buy top players.

      I understand wanting to put pressure on Wenger to ‘aim higher that 4th’ but right now we are far better off having a CL spot. It is not like Wenger has not been strengthening the squad, he has bought some great players in the last 2 years, including Ozil and Sanchez and I feel this is only the beginning.

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