Arsenal overcome Watford yesterday in a five-goal thriller, but the reality is that the performance was rather poor, and Chelsea will be relishing the opportunity to play against us next week.
We will go into the FA Cup final on Saturday knowing that we will have to win the tie to stand any chance of playing in Europe next term, but our level of performance has dropped off lately.
More specifically, we haven’t played a solid match since we lost Shkodran Mustafi to injury, after Raheem Sterling clattered into him late into the FA Cup semi-final, with the German now-not expected to return before the start of the new campaign.
We may have won yesterday, but we failed to retain possession, failed to keep organised defensively, and in reality, could have easily conceded another two or three goals against the now-relegated side.
One could argue that we had little to play for going into the last two matches, but before the Aston Villa match we could still mathematically reach the top seven of the Premier League table, a spot which given our FA Cup opposition would have guaranteed ourselves Europa League football one way or another.
We now face the prospect of going up against Chelsea next week with limited form, and while the Blues have hardly been the best side this season, their attack has proved to be deadly on a number of occasions, and on yesterday’s performance, Frank Lampard will be rubbing his hands together imagining the hatful of goals that his side will amass.
Will the FA Cup final turn into another goalfest?
Patrick
I think Giroud will start. He has been in form lately so the defenders must try their best to keep him quiet.
Luiz is another player that will start so let’s hope he performs his best, the way he performed against mancity in the semi final.
Two ex players will try their best to ensure their team wins. (Giroud Luiz)
I just want arsenal to win. Glad the season is over but wouldn’t be bad if we can get a trophy
The first half, while we were cruising, was fun to watch…. then it was back to the usual heart in mouth moments, dodgy defending, penalty conceding, hanging on by the skin of our teeth that we’ve all become accustomed to!
If we play like that on Saturday, I hate to think what the score will be – double figures??!!
I’ll put money on Giroud scoring!
I just hope everything comes together like it did against City… but right now, I have my reservations….
Very well written.
Giroud will definitelty score, i hope not though. I wonder why ex players enjoy scoring against us. Giroud wanted to leave Chelsea one time this season, before the lock down but he has taken a decent turn lately with an impressive run. I hope we are up for it. Any score line is fine, so long we win 5 4, 3 2, 24 21, 6 4…. so long we score more than them 😊
It’s always been the way, hasn’t it?! Now adding Welbz to that long list of former players coming back to haunt us!!
It’s been said that is Chelsea’s best bit of business in this window – Giroud signing an extension.
Out of your scorelines, I’ll go with 24 21 😂😂
I don’t even want to think about what will happen. We probably gonna lose and Giroud will score. Willian too and than to rub salt in the wounds, Willian will sign and extension and Aubameyang will leave. And that is exactly what we deserve.
Giroud is fast becoming a nightmare to even the best defenders in the division.
Luiz will likely give a penalty to Chelsea because, I can’t see beyond a wrestling match between him and Giroud of which Liuz is always a super warrior when it goes to wrestling. This is the same Giroud that we supporters here keep castigating gamely !
Lampard must had say something to him which might have stimulated him above the sky .
Play as we do against Watford and Baku result will resurrect .
This article was written as though it matters how we play in the league.
It’s a cup final FFS, everything gets thrown out the door, form and all that.
Both teams fought hard to get there, I can’t let myself believe that the coach and his players are thinking of doing what they did yesterday.
It’ll be different, why try to create unnecessary pressures?
We could played like Barcelona yesterday and it wouldn’t affect our game on Saturday.
I’m just saying tho
Very sensible comment Eddie 👍
Not sensible at all!
“Its a cup final”
It was a cup final in Baku too .
Yes, let me guess.. The Baku loss was because of how we won our final EPL game or because the coach and the team failed to turn up?
Dont think Chelsea has time to be laughing at anyone, but were focused on reaching their top4 target.
They did; will come to this game in great spirit without any pressure but play and enjoy football to win game.
I do agree on your view on watford game, nothing to brag about, we were closer to draw & lose; a lucky win that cost watford relegation.
We all know Luiz is not reliable to play in back 4, Chelsea benched him before we sign him to make him our defense’s main guy; Arteta extending him gives indication on his vision & next season.
With Mustafi injured, he has only 2 CBs in Luiz & Holding available. But when he was fit, Holding was on the bench.
Arteta doesnt know what he is doing, experimenting as an assistant coach develloping to head coach should do in a smaller club or minor league as Lampard and everyone did.
Desperate for the job, he didnt care for the club and fans or he would not take job but do as Lampard or Ola; get head coach experience before to come back, not risk us and his carreer.
He can only go down to a smaller team instead of up. If he make mistakes as he done, he will be fired and over.
Kroenke is vicious, brought him using our love for our old Captain but Arteta should not only know better but refuse the job for now…
Until we get a real coach, a top CB at least; we will simply fall further down.
Just common sense, everyone else reinforcing team; we extend tje nightmare with Luiz!
I did not see you commenting like this when we won against LiVARpool and Man citeh.
Please give Arteta time, he is guiding the club in the right direction. And regarding your top coach and top cb comment I guess no one will take the Arsenal job right now and we do not have the finances for a Maga signing.
Definitely it will be a different kind of game. We’ll be at our 2nd home.
Your correct Eddie. The Watford players were energized by what was a make or break game while we were mentally and physically deenergised with the Cup Final looming..I am being kind to our players, many of whom were poor, in the hope that they will raise their game on Saturday.
They’ve all been poor TBH, I think Arteta can be a better motivator when it’s a cup final, throw in the aggressiveness of Pep and build their Spirit like Pep normally do, and for some crazy reason I feel comfortable that we’ll win.
I just want all of this done with so we can know what players are coming in and going out.
Is there no way that we can reject the Europa league spot if we win the FA cup?
Pretty simple really. If it’s the focused and organised Arsenal (EG. That we saw against Wolves) then we’ve got a great chance. If it’s the calamitous Arsenal we’ve seen so often for many years then it could be a horrible experience against a team that is one of the worst to face in terms of taking advantage of Arsenal when we’re playing poorly. Definitely will need to beware of Giroud and Abraham, but we’ve got our own dangerous players too, so let’s hope it goes well.
If we play like we did against Villa and Watford against Chelsea then we are in a for hiding.
I’m just hoping that our players were just being cautious about not getting injured for the final in the last 2 games.
But boy, from what i witnessed against Villa and Watford I am not filled with any confidence for the FA CUP FINAL against Chelsea.
Giroud’s physicality will be a big problem for our defenders. At over 90 kgs am not sure who will be able to contain him. Maybe Luiz can try and mark him but if Giroud wants to hold the ball upfront he will just lean on Luiz and lock him behind him and there’s not much Luiz will do about it. I do miss Giroud and I wish he stayed. His strength and hold up play was amazing.
We only looked shaky after MiKe dean once again helped the opposition team out ,before that penalty we looked well in control.
This is what Wright said about Martinez, “This is what worries me, simply because you look at what he’s done and how he plays, he is better than Kepa now. I think he’s probably better than Bernd Leno if I’m going to be totally honest, from what I’ve seen. I’d be gutted [if Martinez left]. There’s this rumour that Chelsea want him as there number 1, I will be so mad if it happens. Have said it before that in my opinion Martinez is the best keeper that we have in the club, he’s better than Leno, if we are to sell him we should not sell him to a rival, definitely not Chelsea.
I fear Martinez will be sold as Arteta will have only 30M burning a hole in his pocket for transfers according to the Mirror (?). Agree with you that Martinez should be our no. 1.
I think MA will get back to the 3CB’s formation with Teirney and Bellerin/Cedric on sides, but I’m not sure who will be the third CB’s, I wish to see Tierney next to Luiz and Holding not Kolasinac as his performance is getting so worse from game to game. I’m just hoping that MA can do something “magical” within the next days to make Holding and Luiz fit together as Holding performance was way much better with Mustafi around!
We need Tierney and Saka on that day, Pepe in the mood and Auba+Laca ready to score!
If we don’t win the FA trust me with this, we are not ready for Europe.
It was another poor performance,but hopefully Mikel can lift them and get them mentally strong with the chance of euro competition next season as a reason to put in a good performance, we really do need some good signings this summer we have players that are improving but we can still look decidedly mediocre most of the time…….
As true Arsenal fans, we all want our team to turn up in the final and give us what we want to see. Passion, fire, aggression, belief and most of all pride!
In fairness to them, most of them give what’s needed. Unfortunately, they just don’t seem to be able to stay focused or organised. They put themselves under pressure with silly backwards and sideways passing at the back. The way we play is one dimensional with little in the way of inventive attacking football from the middle. Our movement off the ball is lazy and ultimately we lose the ball and concede on the counter. MA knows this but is unable to fix it yet. Our midfield is weak and our defence weaker still. Against a good Chelsea we have no chance if we make mistakes. Just like we did last year in the final against them. Because we actually aren’t any better than we were last year. Sorry, It’s just how I see it. I HOPE we get a good result. I just don’t have confidence in the team to convince me otherwise and, I know a lot of you feel the same. Don’t deny it. Change is needed. Win or lose!!
“They put themselves under pressure with silly backwards and sideways passing at the back”
That’s the decision to play from the back at fault. We simply do. not have the personnel for this approach, so it must be defend first mentality. Playing from the back is predicated on having a sound defense, and players skillful enough to make it work.
With Eddie on this one.
It is a FA Cup final, and AFC have a damn good record or winning them!
emery had a club in the final with the team in complete disarray.
All the stats back up Mikel tightening things up, and making the team better with what he has.
Mikel will have the team prepared.
AFC had a brutal stretch of games leading to the last ones of the season,
with the last 2 being clubs that were playing for their lives.
The team has a 5 days to rest, recover and practice, so Mikel will figure out a clever solution to neutralize the chavs attack.
Am optimistic that AFC will play in an exciting FA Cup final.