Wenger – Arsenal were edgy and nervous in the end but we won!

Arsenal yet again gave the fans a frustrating finish after seeming totally in control in the first half. Maybe if Alexis had not fluffed his penalty chance before putting us ahead 8 minutes the half-time whistle then we may have had a more relaxed second half to enjoy.

But of course we made it hard for ourselves early in the second half when Olivier Giroud over-reacted to a little push in the back, and the ref had no hesitation sending the Frenchman off after he appeared to headbutt Onouha. Suddenly QPR felt they had a chance to come back but thank god that Alexis was around to set our minds at rest with an excellent dribble before setting up Rosicky for a two goal cushion.

Our usual nail-biting finish was assured after Austin pulled one back from the penalty spot to give us 12 minutes of nail-chewing before the final whistle relieved the pressure.

Arsene Wenger admitted it wasn-t the easy win we had all expected: “We made it hard for ourselves but we played two types of games.” he said on the official Arsenal website. “One where we were in control of the game until it went 2-1. After, you never know. The last five minutes were a bit edgy because we conceded a late goal last week and you could feel that was a bit in our mind. But overall I think we were in control for big parts of the game and in the end we have shown resilience and fortunately got the three points.

“We were nervous and the opponent pushed forward. Our game is [about] psychology and the mental aspect. In the final part of the game when the result is not settled, it’s always very important.

“It was a tough one today. It doesn’t become easier. Honestly, you don’t have a feeling because there is so much in the next game. I’m happy I could win 400 and it’s not as easy as it looks. The next 400 will be much more difficult.”

Now we will have to face two tough away games against the two teams directly above us in the League without Giroud. This could be the week that makes or breaks our season, so we can only hope that Wenger can get the players mentally fit for a pulsating week ahead…..

Tags Giroud Wenger

38 Comments

  1. i dont think we should trying to park the bus anymore, we are only making it easier for the other teams. and we are not well equipped to do it. I rather see us keep the possesion and frustrate them to the final wistle when we are winning.

    1. I’m gonna be that annoying pessimist but…..

      I think ydays game was evidence that the balance in this team is just awful. We aren’t that good at attacking/creating clear chances (compared to other Wenger teams) , and we are dogshite at defending as a team.

      QPR have lost 8/8 away and never won on boxing day. Chelsea would have put 4 past them in 2nd gear. We basically got lucky a blatant pen was ignored, and wyy we needed Alexis to play that one when we have West Ham and Southampton away next is just crazy.

      Yes we won, but good lord on that evidence top 4 is a legitimate worry.

    2. For how long shall we come in to games expecting easy wins only to watch with lots of frustrations and under too much pressure??????
      When will english referees get over us and try to be fair while officiating us? Giroud is red carded for seeming to have head butted a player but ferdinand has a right to strangle him and get away with it…and finally when will wenger ever get his tactics right???? remove an attacker replace them with a “defender” =come and press us…we lost points at liverpool and he still does that the next game

  2. I think the reason we did that was because of last week’s game against liverpool. We were a bit nervous not to concede again….. I’ll take 3 points and forget the ugly win.

  3. Whenever I watch Sanchez, he leaves me scratching my head. I’m both amazed by his determination and annoyed by some of his decision making. I think the Barca fans had the same problem with him. Several times he’ll attempt to dribble when a quick pass is the better option 🙁 Sometimes right in front of our box 18 :S Don’t the coaches discuss these things with him? He repeats the same mistake week after week 🙁 @Bob Can you pass the message across please? 😀

    1. The most important pass he made was to Rosicky he ran and beat 3 QPR players what else do you want from him???He’s our best player this whole season

      1. I want him to polish his game a bit more. I’m angry because it’s a problem the coaches identified at the start of the season, yet the problem still persists. Yes, he has been our standout player, but that wouldn’t be the case if Walcott and Ramsey were fit and in form for the same period. Controversial I know, but that’s what I think.

        1. Whether you’re right or wrong it’s a nice debate to have. The thought of Theo and Sanchez running on to Ozil’s passes with Ramsey in the engine room is mouth-watering.

    2. I love Sanchez but this is his weakness, he needs 6 attempts to get on good pass through. And he sometimes holds on to the ball too much, he needs to know when to hold and when to pass..

      He is not a finished article yet, but he said it himself that he has got a lot to improve on and Wenger is the man to help him do that..

      At least he want to improve, so I am happy about it..

    3. Wenger pretty much said the same in the post match interview. The interviewer asked the predictable question about “how good is Sanchez blah blah” and Wenger basically said he is so talented that he often tried to do too much by himself – the individual v the team argument.

    4. It’s not SANCHEZ fault, now keep in mind if it wasn’t for him we would now be in the company of Leicester, Burnley and the rest of the bottom feeders.
      Can you blame Sanchez for not passing the ball to WIDEBECK, lately this man is never in position, WHY because he is defending and running all over the place, the clumsy GIROUD let’s face it, he is better than WIDEBECK and works better for our team game, but far from being a surgical finisher.
      Last we are a dysfunctional team, no tactics, better said yes one TACTIC and only one, no creativity from our Coach to switch tactics when needed, players playing out of position, darn is a long stretch to even bringing BARCA on the same sentence as WENGERS ARSENAL.

  4. We won (phew)!

    When we had Wellbeck and Sanchez playing as a two man forward line we looked amazing. I don’t believe our current system plays to our strengths. Sanchez has the quality to play in between midfield and the striker position as well as pace to break beyond the defence. Wellbeck is well suited to play as a traditional striker. Together they caused a lot of problems with their pace and movement. I would like to see us go to 4-4-2 especially at home.

    However, what is Wenger doing defensively? He puts on 6ft3 Chambers and moves him to right back. He moves our slowest defender as a sweeper and leaves Monreal & Gibbs to mark Zamora! Lets be honest Gibbs actually fouled Zamora and it should have been a penalty. Surely you must get Mertesacker to mark Zamora and let Monreal sweep. Crazy and almost cost us.

    1. Welbeck did fck all all game.. He is looks so average and our he does not suit our game. He always breaks our play up by his poor first touch, he can’t link midfield and attack. Donkey Giroud does it better, he will link and get assists on top of scoring..

      I think Welbeck needs to fix up because when Ozil and Walcott come back to full fitness he will spend more time on the bench..

      1. true..neither him or giroud has the instincts of a striker. He is in the team more for his defensive duties than for his attacking abilities. Unfortunate but true. Giroud is good but outside the 6 yard box his abilities are poor. Has zero vision, cannot make a decent pass. The less we talk about his dribbling the better. But at least he scores the goals and that is what matters. We need to understand that for our system to work we need a van persie kind of striker- a person who is as adept at scoring goals as in assisting, or may be I should say Sanchez type of striker.

      2. The story repeats, if anyone followed his stay with MANURE, he had flashes of brilliance everyone thought he was the next best thing, only to disappear as fast as he rose, he then spent half of last season on the bench with Marouane, till MANURE found a team really desperate (US), who missed great opportunities to sign World class Strikers, to dump him, better yet they got TOP dollars for a barely above average Player…. if he does not become a consistent player with all the opportunities Le Fraud is giving him, then we should sell him.

  5. To me Arsenal are cruising to our
    4th place trophy again.
    Even if Podlski leaves and Sanogo
    and Campbell go out on loan
    we still have a truckload of attackers.
    Giroud Wellbeck Sanchez
    Cazorla Ox Rosicky plus
    Ramsey Walcott Ozil back soon.
    Campbell Gnabry Akpom in the wings
    What we really need are 2 CB’s
    and 2 DM’s but the Wenger budget
    will probably see one of each.
    Overall a C grade at half term
    but if we beat Westham
    I would ammend that to C+

  6. Wenger says our game is about ‘Psychology and the Mental aspect. So that means he prepares his players to be like ‘ shrinks’, ‘mind readers’ brainstormers’, whatever else we may want to call it. How about our game being about playing football, the streetwise kind like Sanchez does, where only the ball and the way forward to goal matters. How about our game being about breaking down opponents tactically? How about buying a top defender and DM to strengthen us. It’s no wonder we have been performing as we have, Wenger is too busy dishing out lessons in Psychology and the players don’t have the time to think on their feet.

      1. I know I have, and I am aware of the mental responsibility required. I am only concerned about the lack of physical presence that is missing in so many games and costing us points.

  7. Debuchy what a player. There’s a reason why he was our second highest rated player at the start of the season. Wenger certainly knew what he was doing when he allowed Mr Dependable to leave. That said,there’s really no reason why we couldn’t have both Sagna and Debuchy. Sagna had developed into a very fine CB. He could pass, he was quick, he could jump and tackle. I’m sure this would have been a cracking deco and hard to beat defence:

    Gibbs Koscielny Sagna Debuc

    1. The problem was that once City dangled that £150,000 a week 3 year contract it was going to be hard for us to stop him.. I like Sagna but a 30 yr old RB asking £150,000 a week? Hell no.

  8. really hoping it sinks into wenger how important defence is. his not buying cmd/DB in summer – unforgivable incompetence & delusion.

  9. now we are edgy against a relegation threatened team at home, who were denied a stonewall penalty in the dying minutes of the game

    1. Swings and roundabouts. The first was never a penalty. As an aside, the number of critical wrong calls by PL refs this season is epidemic. Just look at yesterday – two blown calls at Emirates (the non call on Zamora must have been a makeup call for Debuchy’s so-called foul); no red at Goodison for Walters and the worst of all was the missed call in the Spurs game. They really need help – video replays, a second ref, I don’t care just sort it out.

  10. He has to start,except Wenger decides to insult us by playing Sanogo ahead of Poldi and Walcot. Wenger keep saying Walcot needs game time,but gives him none,I wouldn’t mind if he had put Walcot and Chambers/Francis for the final Ten minutes.

  11. I think the penalty against debuchy was fair. He stuck out a foot, caught hoilett who otherwise would have gone past him and towards goal. The ref got all the major decisions right I’d say.

    1. Agree, and Debuchy keot backing off instead of tackling him outside the penalty area. The ref seemed fine and we were fortunate with the Gibbs tackle towards the end.

    2. The main problem with your argument is that Debuchy actually hit the ball first, followed by Hoilett falling over his leg. Difficult for the ref to see but true if you watch it closely. Even had many fans fooled I see.

  12. arsenal player need to defend well.. last quater most of arsenal players were in the box but none knew what their responsibilities were. defense training is must… poor management from wenger..

  13. People going on again about DM
    United are better than us with a WORSE defense

    We NEED a defender and WC striker
    Welbeck and Giroud < Aguero, Costa and RVP

    DM don't give us goals. A defense are 4 defenders and a GK.
    GOALS GOALS GOALs- that's what we NEED
    we are not scoring enough goals

    I am happy getting a DM as long as we get a defender and Top striker FIRST

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors