I am no fortune teller and I am not a medium, (I’m a large!), but I am fairly confident in predicting that Arsenal will not win the Premier League title this season. Not that I am one of the fans panicking about our slow start and losing to Chelsea, I just think that It looks like a two horse race this season, with Man City the team to hopefully stop the insufferably smug Jose Mourinho winning it.
But I also think that Arsene Wenger has bought well this summer and that the Gunners are a stronger squad that should have no problem finishing in the top four once again. So I wonder if maybe this time we should prioritise the Champions League. I doubt if we will be able to win it, but it would be a real boost for the players, fans and manager if we could at least go further than the first knockout stage.
Losing to Borussia Dortmund in the opening game has made that task harder, of course, but you could say that the 2-0 scoreline was lenient on our performance and there is nothing to stop us matching it or better in the return game at the Emirates. Dortmund are in shocking form this season, ravaged by injuries – and the loss of Lewandowski – and their great performance against us was an exception for them. We thumped the Turks and if we can do the same in the two games against Anderlecht, which we should, then Arsenal still have a good chance of topping the group.
Even if we don’t and we have to play one of the group winners, Wenger has the January transfer window to strengthen any positions that we are light in (cough, DM, cough) and barring any more bad luck we should have a full strength squad with key players like Walcott, Debuchy and Ramsey back and fully fit. Also, I think the less frenetic European games will suit the skills of Mesut Ozil more and if the German comes back fit and well and finds the sort of form he started to show before the Chelsea game, he could be the difference against anyone.
So what do you think, Gooners, is this the year for Arsenal to focus on the Champions League?
I haven’t stopped laughing re the headline alone. This is
Funny article topic…………LMAO
No l dont think so Arsenal still lack holding and defensive mid their not the team that use to be back in 2004 before that was a winning team with depth and quality and can beat any team on the day either lower or higher bigger named teams . today the teams has significantly changed with the players my view and thought Arsenal need fresh start with a new manager . Wenger time has gone he is a good manager but sorry to say he cant do the job now he should resign and allow some one else to succeed . if you just change Jose M with Wenger .Jose M will take Arsenal to top level and Wenger to Chelsea he will take Chelsea down . the Wengers tranfer market policy not working he making money for himself the clubs owners he doesnt worry about trophys anymore or the Arsenal fans who spend big money into buying tickets to Arsenals revenue . the squad they have will not win anything even struggle to top four finish or unless new players are brought in . you be the judge youself to see recent form of Arsenals games and last seven years what been achieved just one FA cup trophy and top four finish .
Prioritise the champions league???after the Dortmund game it became clear as day that we have zero chance of winning this competition ahead of teams like Bayern Munich,Real Madrid and Barcelona stop being delusional it makes us a laughing stock!!
The Dortmund game showed clearly why we are no hopers with a zero percent chance of winning the Champions League,if we can’t beat Dortmund can we beat Bayern,Madrid or Barca??the answer is a clear NO!
I dont agree with that statement. We can beat any1 of those teams on our day, we have trouble like teams against dortmund who press us high up the pitch, those 3 you just mentioned don’t play a pressing game and i truly believe we are capable of beating them.
BUT the likelihood of us doing it is slim cause we would need all our star players and everyone firing on all cylinders.
Try reading what I said next time then comment
Did you just say Bayern or Barca don’t play a pressing game? Wasn’t it Pep who introduced the pressing game into Barca when he was coach, and which has not been as evident in seasons after. He’s done the same thing to Bayern. Besides if you and I can see that Arsenal struggle against teams who play a pressing game, surely any experienced manager with the players capable of carrying out the tactics would just use that on Arsenal as Dortmund did
OT:before u comment pliz participate in this lil survey…..fenkyu !!!
thumbs up – Reus
thumbs down – Draxler
I’ll go for Draxler he’s more gettable we can’t get Reus if Man City or Real Madrid are after him they will just offer more than us!
disagree with what you said about reus. you could tell the guy has morals and class and he would go where he thinks he would flourish and succeed in a suitable environment he’s not about the money
Damn man you are about as thick as they come when did I say win the ucl? Can you read or comprehend?
When did I even mention arsenal? F*ck you are dumb
I’ll go for 2 defenders and a DM…
Rues and Draxler will play as LW…
We have many players who can play on either wings …. Alexis,Theo,Ox,Gnabry,Campbell, and Poldi…
I’d rather spent sensibly and strengthen the defense and DM positions
why 2 defenders?
Of curse 2 defenders coz we only have Monreal as cover for Gibbs, and then there’s chambers if he is a cover to debuchy then we need. Covers for both far par and kos, or take jenko back +1 CB
So vermaelan could never get a game as the back up cb but you wanna bring in 2 more? Mmmmm
Because we have a wafer thin defensive line…
we have 2 injury prone LB’s and we have our current first choice RB as backup for both CB’s
Pathetic, pathetic Arsenal, a great club in demise. International matches tearing the very guts out of the game. Prima donna`s by the dozen and WAG`s with their tits hanging out trying to promote a dying breed. Wake up you mugs, stop throwing your money at the feet of these clowns.
What’s the point?
#ImissOzil
Jack has now ample time to stand up and be counted. Or get sold in the summer.
‘Jack’ and ‘stand up’ in the same sentence – love your optimism!
#Jackfellover1591.35678timesalreadythisseason
Dude, u got it right. The guy spends more time kissing the grass than standing on his two feet!
not sure what jack has to do with ozil cause jacks best position is b2b. Cazorla/Rozza as the #10 and jack behind them driving forward
I think Jack played as our CAM fair few times this season.
Infact 4-1-4-1 was Jack/Ramsey and Ramsey/Santi in the middle with Sanchez and Özil on the wings.
But since Mesut is now fcuked for sone time, we have 16 games to play till he comes back. And during these times i quite expect Wenger to play Jack in the middle. Santi is about to be 30. I expect our future player Jack to get more chances than Santi in the middle.
But i still don’t understand. if you watch the games where we played with jack and ramsey in the 4-3-3 you could see ramsey was the furthest up the pitch, ramsey would almost at like a cf and to me thats why he wasn’t as effective.
But jack will still be in the middle even with ozil in the side. and i fully expect wenger to play santi as the #10. Id also like to see alexis as the CF/CAM flanked by walcott and ox/campbell
Even i did feel that. Rambo is trying too heard.
He knows the fans expect a lot from him after last season.
Like last year if you see the number of tackles that he made per game, it was well above 3. But this year the way he was taking distant shots and trying through balls and eventually giving the ball away, shows he wants to only attack. The number of tackles per game this year will be less than two i guess.
Another sacrifice being made for jack.
Let’s prey jack can do what Aaron did last season and finally come through. We need him now and I hope he is up to the task.
unless we spend real big
we should priortise the FA Cup and League Cup for every season….
we stand no chance with the EPL and Champ league with a weak and thin squad….
Debuchy, Giroud, Ozil, Arteta, Walcott, Ramsey, Monreal. Please add if i missed any. I suspect i might have. After all this is Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. A bunch of incompetent , outdated and void of new ideas staff.
We need to play our young defenders for at least easy home games…
They need to be match ready rather than been thrown into a pressure situation as happened to Bellerin..
Defense is a delicate area we need to take care till January…
Just saw a small highlight again of the weekend game.
When Courtis get smashed by Sanchez, that was a beautifully craved long ball, if Sanchez could have controlled it, it should have been a goal. Yep 25th April, 2015 is a long time. I hope we have all our players back and running including Diaby.
Then Hazard’s run. He runs past Santi, Chambers and then Koscielny fouls him. I feel Santi should have bought him down outside the box.
Jack wasted the best opportunity of the game. Santi put him one on one with Cech. But faulty first touch and Cech comfortably collects.
Oscar should have been a booked more than 4-5 times. But having a kid’s face helps you, i guess.
The second goal was as a result of putting too many men in attack, though Mert should have fouled Costa during the build up to the second goal.
And now i have to let it go, reassessing the game is Wenger’s job. Not mine. And it won’t change the result. But one thing that i can say is, with our full strength team we can and will beat them.
P.S.- This is the second time Mesut played a match through injury, for people questioning his lack of commitment
@sumo
I couldn’t agree more with your assessment. These idiot fans have no idea what there talking about. If you watch the 2nd half chelsea couldn’t spring 2 passes together until the 77th min and costa was having to defend and chelsea had ELEVEN men behind the ball.
We were the better team on the day, wenger got his tactics spot on and on another day if we were that bit more clinical we would’ve won.
Actually Sanchez, Danny, Mesut had more than a fantastic game against Galatasray. Who knew that all of them would be sh*t against Chelsea.
I can’t even remember what Danny did the whole game, except more making that two footed challenge on Fabregas.
The tactics were there, but this is a clear let down by the players.
Also when Mesut felt injured, instead of wasting space, he should have walked up to Wenger and told him is ordeal and get subbed off.
Stop going on about the game we were well beaten Chelsea we’re comfortable.
Give it a rest about Jack Sumo.
Ozil has bin poor end off and Jack was our best player the other day and has started the season well.
Pedal your nonsense on another thread.
Ofcourse Mesut has been poor.
But how does that justify Jack not being able to control a normal pass, and which he should have eventually scored.
Also i noticed the game was played out form the left. But Inavoic(spelling?) owned Sanchez. I fell Wenger gives them the freedom to switch flanks when ever they want. Mesut was rotting on the right with out making any impact.
I feel Sanchez should have swapped with Mesut on the right hand side.
I have to say for once u agree. Look Mesut wasnt bad, but whenever he got the ball, the tempo of our game slowed down and gave chelsea enough time to park the bus. Jack on the other hand was the only one really with the correct tactic against Chelsea…we had no height and strength up front which meant wing play and crosses would have been inneffective. The only way we had a chance of winning was threading short passes through the middle and catching them on the counter. Jack is notorious for doing this and once or twice he was close but when then rest of the team is content just to pass the ball around the box there was no hope. Jack was trying to drive forward but simply had no one on the same page as him.
Champions league is most definitely not the clubs priority top 4 is.
“Wenger has the January transfer window to strengthen any positions that we are light in”
Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha
Are you serious???
Wenger buy in January and do it to strengthen a position? ah ha ha ha ha ha.
x2 CB’s, (one versatile to play along the back line) and x1DM player is the minimum we need in Jan. Any less and we’ll be lucky to get anything this year. 4th place will be a challenge and we’ll be watching Thursday night Europa league next season.
Along with these signings Wenger needs to commit to a formation that works and stick with it. A number of the players also need to buck up their ideas.
Can’t wait for Gnabry and Walcott to return.
The only priority any club in the world should have is the next game, anything more than that is simply stupid.