Arsenal get lucky again! But how long will it last?
In a game of two halves we were, if not already, taken back down to earth after the emphatic Spurs win a few weeks back.
It feels like the Spurs game was last season, because since then we have unclicked and have only managed two draws against and (no offence to them), but teams on paper that we should be beating easily!
So, if matches were decided on halves, then after the first half we would have deserved the win, but after the second, not so much!
Just what has gone wrong since Spurs? Although we haven’t lost and we are still gaining a point rather than losing all three it is not enough for our club!
But we will only know at the end of the season just how much those draws will mean, they can be the difference between a higher place in the table or not.
And if the team and Arteta do not address this quickly we will continue to draw and slip back down the table, after doing well enough to get together as a team and show we can win!
The frustrating thing is that we know what this team is capable of, we saw as much against Spurs. And yes I keep going back to the Spurs game because something changed that day, and only for that day it seems!
Yes, it was the North London derby, one of the biggest games in our season and yes, it is not in our DNA to lose to the Spuds, but it should also be in our DNA not to perform so poorly against every other team we face and not to be happy with just grabbing points at “hard fought” sides.
We know the referees will not always help us out, especially Mike Dean! And who’s to say had he sent McArthur off we would have gone on to win, we may have even lost. But we know we have to go out and win the game ourselves, and if we get calls our way by VAR or the refs then it is all a bonus.
So yes, there is a hell of a lot of progress needed to be made, and although it was not the best of results, based on two halves it was not the worst of results. But what we need to do is not drop in tempo once or if we go 1-0 up, at least kill the game off and then sit back, because if we do not do that, we will get a repeat of last night.
Maybe if our boys watch the first half against Spurs every night before a game then they will take inspiration from the performance and will learn to kill off games in the first 45 and relax a little in the second where we defend until the end!
There are mixed reviews from last night of course and although a point is not the worst, we cannot and should not be content with it, but it does show a slight progress, and it also shows there is still a very very long way to go! Gooners?
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_