I don’t think that Lee Dixon meant that the Arsenal players should be shot when he said “We had our backs against the wall”, but it would appear that Arsene Wenger has misinterpreted his statement (deliberately or not) and has responded by saying that that is not the only way to motivate the players for the crucial match against Tottenham tomorrow.
“Lee Dixon is a passionate guy, so in his response he is passionate as well,” Wenger said. “I think if that was the only way to feel football games, you would say, ‘If you don’t win the game, you are killed after it. You are executed.’
“That shows you that putting people up against the wall is not the only way. That’s why it’s so difficult to win a game.
“It’s a mixture between urgency and confidence, relaxed and tense, and that is different for every individual. Different for every team as well.
“You have to adapt your speech to the mental state of the team and the individual.
“They are the kind of remarks I’ve had for 20 years. I remember many people questioned me in 2002 and 2003 if (Robert) Pires will be tough enough to play in the derby.
“This guy has scored more goals than anybody in the derby. At the end of the day, it’s down to the quality of the game.”
That reply may have been tongue-in-cheek, but if you can imagine a minute what the response will be on justarsenal if we DID lose, there will probably be a lot of readers calling for Wenger’s head and saying that the players really should be shot! There will certainly be a few character assassinations aimed at whoever we feel is responsible for the defeat lol.
But why should we even worry when we know we never lose to Tottenham at the Emirates?
Sam P.
We won the league at shite hart lane..
Yes we did, twice.
I was there for the first one.
We’re going to lose. We already know that.
No, we’re going to win.
Oh Sam P, your final sentence is so arrogant and out of touch with reality. True , Spurs have a poor record at our place over twenty years but this is now and that was then. Bravado, without perspective remains just that; bravado, and I call that rather silly. However I really believe you have written this whole article, not for an attempt to get at the truth but to try to “shame” Gooners into following your foolish ignorance of modern reality. I will come clean that I do not welcome “we are the greatest team in the world ” type posts and those which ignore our many weaknesses throughout the club, from owner, board, manager and many of the players who do not fight with the passion the modern Spurs always do. Would that you had instead written a realistic article outlining where we need strengthening and how we can use the eleven we actually start tomorrow to stymie Spurs. But sadly , you did not. I do not think your article says anthing at all which is useful or which gives us new insight. Frankly I think you write mostly just for the ego trip of getting your name out there as a writer.
Jon, we know you are anti-Wenger and a lot of people are on this site. But some people are just Arsenal supporters and have their own opinions about wanting the team to win.
Just because they don’t agree with you doesn’t mean they are wrong. We are all Arsenal supporters, not necessarily Wenger supporters, and we want the team to win every game. Is that such a bad thing?
Well said Admin, it’s about opinions and no one is right or wrong. I want Wenger out but do not berate those who are AKBs. Love Arsenal, hate spurs, my opinion.
Admin, then you seem to be telling me that we are not free to take issue ,with what others say! That is not democracy Mr Admin! I welcome debate and diverse opinions on here and wish there were far more of these detailed posts(rather than one liners, who seem not to have time or inclination to write other than soundbites) You must allow that we are allowed to challenge and call out others views, in a free country. And provided language is not hateful and horrible , surely we are allowed to use strong opinions! Or do you think we should notstrongly disagree, as you appear to be saying to me? What are the rules you impose on here? PERHAPS YOU CAN ANSWER MY SPECIFIC POINT PLEASE. Because I do not wish to waste my time unless we can all properly debate, if we want to. And I do. Others don’t wish too and that is fine with me but surely there is room for all, IF this is a free debate site, as I still hope!
“Would that you had instead written a realistic article outlining where we need strengthening…” and articles moaning about the manager, board and players.
Seriously how many of these articles have we seen?
What new angle do they give us that we don’t already know? None
What new solutions do they provide us with? Absolutely FA
Completely unfair to judge this guy’s article for not having anything useful or insightful to say.
It’s not what you want, you just want to hear your own opinions reflected back at you.
This arsenal site is chit chat, moaning and a laugh now and then. I’m fine with that, i’m english that’s pretty much all we do.
Pretending it’s anything more and I think you’r the one deluded
You put words into my mouth that I did not say. Bit below the belt , wouldn’t you say! You quote what I wrote in quote marks and that’s fine. But then you went on to add completely different words of your own and try to link them to mine, which I did not say. And then you blame me for saying the words which YOU actually said. Somewhat bizarre, I’d say. You chose to totally misrepresent what I said and then castigate me , when it was YOU that said them. Very odd and low class behaviour JiB. And I have no idea what your phrase”i’m english and that’s what we do” is supposed to tell us. I too am English and also like chit chat and humour and indeed often post humour . But if you wish to put me down, do me the honour of being critical with what I ACTUALLY SAID, before taking issue with it. Doing what you have done instead is cowardly and pathetic.
There is nothing of note to critique in what you’re saying….that’s my point. Kind of thought that obvious.
I’ll be calling for Wenger’s head even if win, because one result changes nothing!
we win*
I will like to think that BUT! Still I will be willing us on! I think it is not impossible if we have good refereeing and no debatable penalties. Harry Kane dived the last time, bad refreeing at Man City, so let’s just hope it will be a fair officiating. Maybe a draw. But I don’t think Tottenham will win. Fingers crossed!
I hope we win of course. Doesn’t matter how much I hate Wenger, I’ll always want a win over Spurs.
Trouble is spurs are a better side than Arsenal.
The season is over one way or another.
But the board of directors will still see enough to offer Wenger another deal in the summer.
They won’t make the same mistake they did this summer by allowing it to run down – after all we cannot have discontent can we?
It becomes difficult to see positives we you can see what is happening…
Nothing will change the fact that Kroenke and his thrash should be thrown out.
We don’t want to lose, that’s for sure.
But surely, we can’t afford to be arrogant for sure. There is seriously no reason to be so, looking at the results we had so far.
Bar sanchez (whose head is elsewhere) the spurs team player for player are better than Arsenals. Also, they have a manager who changes tactics, are defensively disciplined and know each of their roles.
Arsenals dominance over tottenham has been waning the past 6 years. It ends full circle tomorrow with wenger leaving at the end of the season. There is not doubt in my mind that spurs will win comfortably tomorrow. There is no paper left to cover the cracks.
Arsenal 0 – 2 Spurs