Former Liverpool man, Danny Murphy believes Arsenal’s poor away form will cost them a place in the top four eventually.
The Gunners have broken into the Champions League places and have been in good shape in the last few weeks.
Manchester City beat them 2-1 in their last league game, but even in that defeat, they showed great character.
Their home form is admirable, but when they travel, it is hard to trust them to perform well.
Murphy believes it is this inconsistency on their travels that would eventually cost them a place in the top four.
He tells TalkSport: “’I think Arsenal’s biggest problem is away from home. At home, they’ve been okay but away from home, when they come up against decent opposition, they tend to fall short.
‘I’m talking about [Man] City, [Man] United, Liverpool – losing all those games and not well.
‘They’ve not shown enough resilience and confidence and quality to look like they can break into the top four.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Finishing inside the top four would be a major achievement this season, and we are in a good position to achieve that now.
There are a few more away matches to play, and this second half of the campaign offers us the chance to change our performances in them.
Mikel Arteta has a stable team now and would hope his players can keep their concentration and reach for their end of season goals.
Really, if we play the way we did against City in the first half, we could finish third, we have two difficult games Chelsea away and Liverpool at home, we are benefiting from not playing in Europe, this team looks hungry, but we do need a proper Defensive Midfielder as Partey could be away for a month as Ghana are favourites, Xhaka can not be trusted as against City he will ruin things
Arsenal played well against the citizens. I think if they continue with that spirit, they’ll finish in top four. Thanks to the efforts of our young lads more so the forward. Their display is good
We really always look short away. I don’t know if it’s the young age of the team or what? Look for example, at the Everton game? The players looked helpless even after getting a goal before the home team. That’s difficult to understand
I never cease to be surprised at why this site thinks the opinion of any particular individual pundit about our team, even a well respected one like Murphy, is considered worthy to write about.
My reaction is, “so what? Who cares what he thinks? It changes nothing !”
So someone has an opinion! Well, big deal! We all have opinions but no one except ourselves cares to write about them or publish them and we are GOONERS, who would be more in touch with daily developments than any pundit. At least one who has never had any Arsenal allegiance.
I DO NOT SAY HE IS NOT ENTITLED TO HIS OPINION; I MERELY QUESTION WHY IT IS CONSIDERED TO BE OF REAL IMPORTANCE TO WE GOONERS.
I heard his TALKSPORT opinion live and thought then, as I think now, thathe is not up to date with developments; the very thing I say is hardly surprising with a non Arsenal supporter.
Two months ago I would have shared his opinion. Not now however, as being a real Gooner, I keep up to date and think we have a realistic chance of making top four. MAN UTD LOST AT HOME TO WOLVES SINCE HE SPOKE OUT.
The moral of this post is that news dates VERY quickly and life moves on, again VERY QUICKLY. Eh Danny boy!
Yes our away form has not been top draw, but there has been some very significant improvement in this regard of late. We struggled to beat Norwich 1 – 0 at home but went away and thrashed them 5 – 0.
In any case, our top-four rivals are not faring any particularly better away from home either
So I’m going to keep my top-four hope alive until it’s unrealizable
Oh Danny…. looks like you haven’t done your homework before making a public div of yourself.
Since I last looked at the fixtures we only have Chel$ki away in the EPL for the remainder of this season.
Like you JF, I think Murphy is one of the more sensible pundits, and while he is justified in his comments regarding our away form, I am surprised he has not acknowledge the improvements which are evident in the quality of our football of late.Despite the unlucky loss to Man City, resilience was there in abundance and the players will take real confidence ,even in defeat.Let’s show DF his judgement is wrong on this occasion.