Arsenal fans as usual had to endure an agonising 88 minutes before Arsenal finally managed to score the winning goal against Southampton last night, but thankfully Sanchez came to the rescue – as usual – after the Saints were reduced to ten men.
Wenger was pleased with the win, but thought that his team were tired after playing three games in a week, and had to sit back, be patient, and wait for our opponents to tire themselves out as well. “It was difficult for us to keep going from the start of the game because we’ve given a lot against Dortmund and on Saturday – today was the third game in seven days.” Wenger said on Arsenal.com.
“You could see that we had to dig deep. We played against a good team who are very well organised and play very quick on the counter-attack. For us it was important not to be exposed on the counter-attack and to keep a clean sheet. We had to be patient and wait for our chances and you could see in the last 20 minutes that they started to suffer a little bit physically and that we created openings.”
Olivier Giroud came on halfway through the second half and certainly made us look more dangerous, but Wenger admitted that he Frenchman was still not quite match-fit, whereas Alexis seemed tired from being OVER-played!
“Giroud worked very hard and we have a very good preparation system.” Wenger continued. “Everytime the players come back we get them to a point where they are basically ready but, having said that, he played 70 minutes on Saturday and 25 today. He was a bit jaded today but his physical presence made a difference.
“Alexis was one of the players who had to dig in today but he still has such a desire to fight, which is why he always finds something special to get the goal. It’s difficult to find examples of people who have settled so quickly. My memory is not perfect but quicker, you cannot. We are in December and he arrived in July – when you look at the number of goals and the impact he has on the team, it’s fabulous.”
That was Arsenal’s 7th oal scored in the last five minutes this season, and it looks like we are regaining our desire to fight to the end. We are now just three points behind third-placed Southampton and looking good going into the busy Christmas schedule. If Wenger thinks the players are looking jaded then he should give hem all a day off to recharge their batteries. They certainly deserve it!
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Oops…… I saw you cold and shivering on ur seat WENGER! while we kept on the edge of our seats sweating profusely
Mr. Admin, I wish you or anyone could come up with an article on why English players do not reach great or greater heights these days.
In this present generation, English players tend to be overly hyped and they are very full of themselves. It’s damn hard to think of any English player outside the EPL (please don’t tell me about Ashley Cole).
I wish English players were particularly as good as the Germans and the Spanish are in their own leagues. I wish there were English players in Spain, Germany, Italy, etc., just as there are foreign many players doing very well in the EPL. But the sad truth is that 85% or 90% of English players today are crap and they can’t play in foreign leagues. In fact, foreign clubs don’t come for English players because they are damn too expensive and only very few are talented.
@Kickass, i don’t think English player cannot play anyway outside the EPL, the problem is the FA i think they are certain mechanism in place thats make the move to other premier leagues difficult. there is that sense of ownership of English players by the FA. the other clubs outside EPL have lost hope in trying to pursue English Players, Take Rooney, Welback , Rio.
PLEASE ADMIN WE HAVE ASKED FOR MANAGER’S RATING, I AM STILL WAITING
And your point is?
Wenger was perhaps shivering in the wrong way, hadn’t gone out and spent available funds on suitable replacement attire, should have deployed his subs as barriers from the cold?
….or was your central heating simply too high?
I think you should be thankful that someone actually was brave enough to put some pressure on them and the manager. Didn’t you hear they had more defensive training session. So is it a bad thing? Don’t you think after 11 games of crap we still should pay for tickets don’t complain and support the the manager who doesn’t give f… about us?
And don’t compare Arsenal fans with Man United fans because they were winners for a long long time so they can be patient. I think 10 years without a single trophy for a big club lactually embarrassing. I think I was patient enough.
8 years out of 10 is to repay the stadium debt. It is a big risk the club took and they had failed badly in sporting result.
They are doing things to rectify that (spend more on transfer, revamp youth setup and import top physio) – All the changes need time before showing result on the pitch.
If you are true Arsenal fan, trying to understand and support the club during these bad time. At least the worst time is already behind us, we have seen more positive things these last 2 season – we have waited that long, some more patience wont go amiss. We priotise buying in attack as last season we did not score enough goals, when recording best clean sheet record. With Sanchez and Welbeck already on board, expect a DM and CB this Jan or next summer
Has anyone noticed that mourihno doesn’t rotate his squad in spite of having world class player on chelsea bench?????? His starting 11 is exactly same in last 4 matches in 12 days (apart from striker costa who was injured). Still he didn’t get so much criticism as chelsea players are not injured in droves.
@ shankj…….. Has anyone noticed chelski haven’t lost a game (yet) this season?…………. Has anyone noticed (Like you just stated) he’s got world class replacement on the bench waiting to be used at a particular point when other teams start dwindling in form?
Wenger said “we are creating something special at Arsenal” and “we will be winning the BPL in 2017″…!!
I think he said the same thing 2 or 3 years ago as well as the MLS guy Gazidis…!!
We will anything when Wenger, Gazidis and Kroenke are out.
Watch the game last night… Boring, flairless, stiff, poor and weak…
We won because Giroud change the done and Southampton were down to 10 men…
Probably but I have no clue what makes all other keepers being so good at the Emirates. Forster was the MOTM. We created 9 clear chances, 5 of them were stops by Forster, 3 misses and one converted. Other than that it is normal to be boring as they were tired. Visible tired.
It may please you to know that Arsene never said he will win the league in three years time. He was asked whether he thought Arsenal could win the league in three years to which he said yes. So to start claiming the Arsene said he will win the keague in three years time is bullshit.
Thumbs up for this team to play against stoke
Giroud
Welbeck cazorla. Sanchez
Ramsey…flamini
Gibbs. Kol. Mert. Chambers
Martinez
Sub: moneral. Bellerin. Rosiky. Podolski. Ox.
Teams got pace power and HEIGHT (5) which u need against stoke
I put ramsey in because i feel he has better drive and more work rate in the middle of the park than rosiky and protects the back 4 a bit better than him aswell.
Martinez
Chambers-Mert-Kos-Gibbs
Ox-Rozza-Flamini-Sanchez
Giroud-Welbeck
Team for Stoke:
Martinez
Chambers/Merts/Kosc/Gibbs
OX/Sanchez/Cazorla
Welbeck/Giroud/Podolski
This one will give us some goals for sure.
Podolski is too lazy player like his country mate Ozil
@ SAGooner
At least he knows where the back of net is and he knows how to shoot. But probably we don’t need him,we have so many scores in our team every game goals are flowing.
Not really Ozil fault that he is more intelligent player then the rest(apart from few) of his teammates. But of course what do I know, we are up there fighting to get our 4 place trophy. Everything is wonderful again.
“Everything is wonderful again” haha
Podolski is a 10 – 20 minutes sub, great finisher, but not a team player at the moment, we need the West Brom team for stoke.
You notice that teams play Arsenal harder then the rest of the league, i think it comes from the belief we are weak mentally and will break if pressured enough. I would just like to say well done by the defense line and we are reaping the rewards of a team working together.
We know that everything is not ok at Arsenal, we need a DM and a CB or two, but the team is playing well as a unit and improving, but what PISSTIFIES ( my word do not steal) is when so call fans say we were LUCKY, it was 10 men, and we did not play well, but we have seen Mancity, Manu, Chelsea and so on, winning games same way and you hear the commentators and fans say “they will always find a way”. So did not arsenal find a way.
Our aim is to get closer to the leading pack and collect maximum points in the festive season , even with our shortcomings i think its doable, lets GO GUNNERS
I’m just pleased that Giroud coming back has made a difference to our results..
So to all the Giroud ‘haters’ over the last year, it seems some of you know feck all about football.
He IS a very good player and can influence a game hugely, and of course score goals…
No doubt people will find reasons for it NOT being his influence, but hey, you can’t deny the fact that in his 2 starts since coming back we have won BOTH games.
I’ve always rated him as a key player in our team. He may not score as many as Aguero or Suarez or even Sanchez, but he makes a difference with his strength and skill.
So forgive me for being a tad sanctimonious, but I don’t really give a sh*t. People have been rubbishing the guy for ages, and its time he got some credit.
Totally agree. It defies logic when I read comments wanting Giroud to be sold off. Even if we got a top striker, Giroud would make a perfect supersub
He has scored over 40 goals since coming here. I appreciate all those goals. And glad he is back.
Let me state it again as I have twice stated it. The 2013/2014 Barclays Premier League Tile will be won by Arsenal when the final placing in the table are placed by May next year. 1st..Arsenal. 2nd..Man City. 3rd,.Chelsea 4th..Liverpool. Let every Gooner write this prophesy down and keep it in the bottom of his or her mind for a reference. I think the boss has to start Emeliano Martinez at the Britainian on Saturday. This goalkeeper has started 4 games for the Gunners. And the Gunners have won all the 4 games in which Emeliano had kept the post.
Win is win, its a shame ppl still complain after three points. Some say they were down to ten, wot led to being down to ten men, our players put pressure on dem. We played more game than them, yet we r stronger. I am happy for dis gr8 three point, who wants to complain should go ahead. Well done boys.