It remains to be seen whether Arsenal can continue on from where we started in Barcelona and then today against Everton at Goodison Park, because we have had some false dawns already this season only for the Gunners to falter again. However, the improving injury situation and the fact that we only have Premier League games to worry about now should mean that Arsene Wenger can select his best team without worries about fitness or fatigue.
It will be very interesting to see what happens once we return from the international break and whether the boss continues with the players that have performed so well for us this week. After the win at Everton the Frenchman spoke about the great balance between the creative and technical side of things and the solid and organisational aspects that the Gunners had showed, as reported by the Arsenal website.
He said, “I believe we have a game based on movement and mobility at a technical level with attacking football. We have to balance that right and sometimes it is not always right. Let’s not forget that some players have been out for the whole season so players like Danny Welbeck are just coming back and has not played. Iwobi is just coming into the team. Mohamed Elneny [as well], we brought him in January and he has settled very quickly.
“They have given us a very good balance in the way we want to play football. In England, it is very hard to give a fair assessment of the performance because when you lose, you are disastrous. We have not been as bad as people have said, but I agree that you either win or lose in sport. Let’s go on and push forward until the end of the season. We are today with our backs to the walls and we responded well. I’m pleased that we responded under pressure [after] the character of my players was questioned. If we didn’t win today, we knew that we were out of it [the title race] so it was a mental test for the side.”
I do think that Wenger has found a great balance for the team now but I worry that he may have found it too late to save the season and beat Leicester to the title. Wenger himself is refusing to rule it out even though he admitted it would have been all over had we lost today.
He continued, “I would not consider us out. Mathematically, we have a chance. We also have a game in hand at home. We are not flavour of the week, but if we don’t believe, no one will do it for us. Even if the environment is sceptical, we have to do our best in every single game. We have to be humble and fight in every game like we did today. Then we never know. We need some performances on our side, so let’s focus on that, but some good results from other sides, we cannot help that.”
After the Foxes made it four 1-0 wins from the last five games, though, we are running out of time fast and if someone does not put the brakes on soon there will be nothing Arsenal can do. Next up for them are Southampton and they still have games against Sunderland, West Ham, Swansea, Man United, Everton and Chelsea to get through, so how much chance do you give the new balanced Arsenal team of catching them?
Leicester city is like a bad virus it’s hard to get rid of them!
why do we look so good today , but so awful versus MU and swansea????
i think the choices of elneny, iwobi, welbeck and gabriel were good; i like those players. i prefer them to ramsey, walcott, giroud and mert.
gab has more steel than mert.
welbeck has more skill than giroud.
elneny has more skill than ramsey, and
iwobi has better attitude than walcott (i’m really sad about walcott).
Everton.match proved that the fans opinions were right
1-ramsey is not good for the team as wenger thinks
2-mert needs to be replaced
3-sanchez plays better on the right
4-arsenal don’t have world class wingers (except sanchez)
5-arsenal don’t have world class strikes
Why did we look good today??
Could it be, that Everton just allowed us much more space and time on the ball???
We will see next time a team really press our players.
Have said before Awobi left Welbeck striker. Back 4 a lot better as Ellerny is there for the loose ball and starts moving the ball forward ,where as Ramsey holds on to it and runs and turns so attack is waiting to receive it. Sanches for me is the weak link needs dropping and Campbell in on right.Then you have 3 fast and good with ball would love to see that trio,but Wenger will stick with Sanches hoping he will find form, What form. Why would he drop Campbell when he now is playing well and stick with Sanches who isn’t. Can anyone give me an answer to that. CB
Let’s be real, for us to have a chance at the title we must win all our remaining games! We cannot afford to bottle any game now!
Wenger wants to give
the fans hope but not
expectation so if Arsenal
do not win the fans will not
demand his sacking.
Don’t fLatter urself……..we haven’t found anything yet….. Not after one good game
.
It’s happened every season for God knows how Long….. More Like a Traditional 4th place struggle after all hope of 1st place pursuit becomes untenable!
soopa, losing hope for 1st really loosens up our players and then they get better. if wenger wasnt such an egotist, he’d ask for help from a sports psychologist or just someone to manage our players’ mental state pre-game.
this is just one game back. each game is now our final.
Yes we are in a penalty
shoot out with the Foxes
and the Totts. Both
Leicester and Arsenal
won crucial away games today.
Spurs must beat one of their easy
home games v Bournmouth tomorrow
gab: we’d always hoped he’d rise and surpass the gangly mert. he went thru a nervous patch, and now i hope he’ll go on a good run.
coq seems to be settling back in.
elneny’s been tremendous; hope wenger doesn’t favour ramsey automatically when ramsey returns from injury. the in-form player should play.
welbeck looked better than giroud, but he can go cold too , so hope he’ll stay hot from now on and grow and become more consistent. same w iwobi. our forwards have just been so inconsistent. hopefully welbeck’s rise will improve giroud too.
i dont know what really to say about walcott. can turn it on when his contract is up for renewal. i dont want to think he just cruises unless he has to, but it sure does look like it. pity. hope he can return to the fold.
You think arsene found the perfect balance because of the title?, well in the true sense of it it is because top four is in big danger and time is running out. Arsene can’t miss UEFA Champions League MONEY.
Arsenal has a slew of
easy home games and
only 2 tough away games
left so ECL is guaranteed.
Wenger admitted that a loss to Everton would have been
the end of the title chase and he tried to hide the hurt
caused by Leicester re-establishing the 11 point gap so soon after the
meritorious win at Goddison by adding that
the team has a home game in hand.
So clearly Wenger wants the title badly but as yet is not prepared
to put title winning pressure on his emotionally fragile team
or accept the pressure on his shoulders either as then
failure to win would over ride ECL qualification which could
be construed as failure and hasten his demise as manager
similar to Managers at other clubs who demand 1st place not top 4.
Arsenals goal must be then to close the gap to 4/5 points and hope
Leicester lose to both Man U in game 36 and Chelsea on the final day.
Ranieri has managed expectations brilliantly so far but he has
been assisted by the fact that no one expects Leicester to win
and no doubts he will be at pains to repeat that the Foxes are
looking at top 4 only and deflect the pressure on to others.
The games managers play 🙂 It’s fun though 🙂 🙂
Wenger’s persistence with ramsay/walcott/ox cost us the title this year. Even when he bought elneny, he still played flamini/arteta to my shock. Now that they’re all injured by some shear luck the line up picks itself and look at what we have here??
Wenger is done!! he should be out of this club, the question is, do we want kroenke there?
wenger’s team selection is worse than that offered by chance injuries. when u get injuries and they end up unearthing a better team selection, that means the manager has got to go .
i hope kroenke realizes he wont get another money-manager coach like wenger, and decides to leave too. maybe too much to hope.
i’m glad we both agree, the only way to get kroenke out is to keep putting pressure on him to sell his share, or unless there’s a hostile take over.
Arsenal subs are just pathetic…….. Imagine the likes of Giroud , chambers and gibbs come on after all the Relaxation they had on the bench and we then play even worse!
It’s clear…..we don’t have a dynamic bench
Today after a long time the team had physicality, pace, power, movements, technique & a real goal threat, all the hallmark of the invincibles. Fans have been crying out for last few years to get back to basic but Wenger only acts when pressure from fans gets too vocal.
Bro, we have only won one game with this selection. No time to ask deluded questions already.
We can be really glad with today’s performance but there is no need to get carried away..
On to the next one!!
#COYG
i’m having mixed feelings if this pressure is actually from the “fans” or from the “4th”
The 4th.
They really played well today against an Everton team who made some critical mistakes. Too bad its a little late. Arsenal have 8 games left and can get a max of 79 points if we win all remaining games. Tottenham can get 82 points if they win all their remaining games. Leicester can get 87 points if they win all their remaining games. So in order for Arsenal to win the EPL, Leicester needs to drop 9 points in 7 games, and Tottenham needs to drop 4 points in 8 games, AND Arsenal need to win all remaining games. What are the chances of this happening? So, my best hope is to play well and win all the remaining games, let elneny and iwobi develop some chemistry, and see what happens. In any case, I believe wholesale changes are needed for next season
Has e gone yet
arsenal wont win all the remaining 8 games nor leicester will drop more than 12points.its better to focus on securing top 3;even though ppl will raise their hopes to only get depressed !!
am tired of wenger.the man has got good skills,but somehow he fails to address basic issues in the team like buying a striker and a cdm in the last summer.at one time,arsenal had good squad but had a keeper who at times committed mistakes i.e almunia.then after ozil came and arsenal were first in december,all wenger had to do was buy a pacy striker with eye for goal.but wenger didnt so obviously and instead bought an injured kallstrom.agreed ppl fans will keep saying managers shud hav played this guy or that one and so.but in case of wenger,its abt ignoring team issues t(to prove a point he can win without listening to critics and the fans which he never will),and then playing players out of form,out of position,and buying players that dont fit ur style like giroud !! it aint a surprise that arsenal won this game,its always the case when team combines skill with pace.ok defence is improved since 4-5 years esp after arrival of bould.but still i get feeling that wenger wants to keep attacking even when team has a comfortable lead.i dont mean the team shud sit bak and let opposition attack,rather team shud slow down and focus on keeping posession in such situations with occasional going forward….so for me;wenger will purposely commit all mistakes hes done for 12yrs (amazing !!).and lets be honest he aint gonna change.his recent comments regarding fans and saying he needs to be GOD to be winning is an exaggeration:like hes been winning major honours for last souple of yrs,and with one trophyless season:fans hav turned against him.thats how his comments seems to be !!
The aim of the majority shareholder is not to win championships so it must be to make money. The business model calls for top four finish and to get out of group stage in CL.
It seems that over the last ten years, fight, grit and determination to win only appears when a top four finish is threatened. It does not seem to appear when the title can be won.
Pressure from us fans may get wenger sacked but that will not change Kroenke’s attitude. It is us fans who buy the tickets and merchandise and we are a captive audiance, we are not going to change allegiance and support chelsea or tottenham. However, if we support arsenal less so there are empty unpaid for seats then Kroenke will take notice as it will affect the value of his shares. But that will hurt the club and its ability to pay for players.
Its a no win situation for us fans, continue to support the club and get more of the same (no ambition) or do not pay for seats and hurt the club financially which may start a decline into oblivion.
ppl in the uk are being milked.kroenke shud get the profits only if he does his job i.e investing in the club and GENUINELY going for all titles.that is what fans want,not that a team shud be winning all the time.so if a team is somewhere within 3-5 pts within first placed team and reaches last 16 or quarters of champions league,then u know the team is a competitive one !
in case of arsenal,its a one way benefit.the man gets all the money,while u fans keep enduring mediocrity.so why exactly did he raise his shares ?? oh yeah,jus for $$$.his comments abt man city spending to justify not spending sums up his intentions.AND TO KNOW THAT THE MAN HAS GOT SO MANY OTHER FRANCHISES/CLUBS IN USA JUST GOES ONTO SHOW HE AINT SERIOUS WITH EITHER OF THEM,RATHER ITS ALL ABT ACQUIRING MORE WEALTH.COS LETS BE HONEST,U CANT MANAGE WELL SO MANY TEAMS.IF AN OWNER REALLY HAD ANY INTENTION TO IMPROVE,THEN THEY WUD HAV MAYBE 1 OR AT MAX 2 TEAMS AND FOCUS ON THEM.i maybe wrong,but stan gives me all the wrong vibes.whatever ppl say abt man city,i gotta admit they are giving their best for the club.a good finance manager and a level-headed coach will fix their problem of excessive spending !
if i was an arsenal fan in u.k;i wud of course support team for this season.and see if the club is serious abt challenging.if not,i will not only avoid going to matches;but even avoid watching on t.v and that will hit their revenues hard and make kroenke think twice abt not spending.i wud unite with other fans and raise banners like “mr;kroenke pls spend or pls leave” lol….
Wow, only took 12 years to find the balance!
Looked good today against a sleeping Everton but it is too little too late.
Leicester are getting the job done
They are behaving like Champions
Doing whatever it takes to win.
We need them to lose matches but right now it’s tough to see them even drawing
Best we can do is focus on winning every match and hope for the best.
January and February we caused so much damage to our title hopes after starting January top of the league. The title is not in our hands but our final 8 matches are.