Arsenal have won both their away games so far this season, but the two home games have yielded just one point after a defeat by West Ham and a goalless draw with Liverpool. Arsene Wenger believes that this is because the teams below us have strengthened their sides during the summer and are less scared of losing away to the Big Teams.
“It’s not a surprise that the Premier League is stronger, as a unit,” Wenger was quoted as saying in the Standard. “Why? Because the English clubs are richer and the teams who play in the second half of the league can buy the best players from Spain and from Italy. So it is not a surprise that in England it becomes more difficult to win the games.
“After that, the phenomenon that is absolutely new is that there are few home victories. That shows that teams that go away from home have no fear anymore. They play with full power and because they have individual quality they can provoke surprising results.”
To be honest Arsenal have always seemed to play better away from the Emirates, perhaps because they are not under big pressure from the home crowd who always expect the Gunners to race into a lead and demolish the opposition. They looked nervous against the Hammers and perhaps they were a little overconfident.
It is also fair to say that West Ham, as heavy underdogs, had absolutely nothing to lose and therefore no pressure. Let us hope that this trend of dropping points at home doesn’t continue against Stoke next Saturday!
Congrats to alexis sanchez in scoring a goal towards helping chile in a 3-2 win over paraguay!
I could translate Wenger’s comments 2 different ways. You decide which is closer.
1. We have struggled in some games simply because the EPL is so very competitive – the EPL has so many strong clubs. Each game is a tough contest.
or………
2. The other EPL clubs have strengthened through transfers while we have neglected to participate in the transfer market because I……….. (You fill in the blank here)………….
Yeah. And West Ham strengthened by buying players much better than what Arsenal fielded that day. I see how #2 makes sense. Not.
7 points from the
last 9 is good.
The team relies on a basic
14 players like last season and the season before.
Will they be good enough to go the whole season?
Time will tell.
It’s not just transfers, it’s also tactics. Bringing in width to the game helps, speed helps.
When we are playing teams we should be beating, like West Ham at home, we should play rRamsey and Cazorlain the middle not Le Coq, or if we see that we are not able to open the opposition we should switch to 2 forwards. Winning requires risk taking.
We can’t play the same way every game hoping for a different result.
Key word….pressure.
Comes from….mind. it’s psychological.
Been saying this for years.
Same old story year in year out for more than a decade…apparently because westham are now richer and can buy while we are………..
7pts from a possible 12pts bro! This is just not good enough for a supposed epl contenders..
Speculative article at best and I disagree with the hypothesis.
Nothing of Arsenal’s current form surprises me and I think that Arsenal’s two big problems boil down to tactics and the psychology of the team.
For weeks before the campaign began players, pundits and fans alike went on about our title chances, about finally putting in a good challenge and when everything was said and done and the counter was reset to zero we lost our opening game to West Ham after we were tactically ot done.
Now a lot of people will say that’ it’s 4 games in and none of the other challengers really flew out lf the blocks bar City but as evidenced by recent seasons it suggests that a good start is crucial come the final reckoning.
More worrying is our inability to vary our style of play when teams set out to limit the playing field in front of us. Mourinho has for years sought to limit the flow of our game and other teams are adopting the same strategy.
Some may call it parking the bus but if the opponent shows up with a plan to achieve a particular result the onus is on us to change the game.
The notion that the league has gotten stronger isn’t any excuse as we were presented with the same opportunity to strengthen and elected not to do so.
Time for us to step up.
Exactly! Tactics and psychology. The value is there. I would not have started Debuchy and Giroud that day. And I would not have brought Sanchez in, what was the point? Tire him more? Ah, is water under the bridge now but I was so beaten that day.
Wenger- “the teams below us have strengthened their sides during the summer and are less scared of losing away to the Big Teams”. He knows this but why didn’t he do the same and strengthen the team especially striker. The guy is just a loser
There is no fear! Arsenal will undoubtedly beat Stoke City at the Emirates Stadium after the international break. 7 points from 12 aren’t a bad haulage. The 5 points deficit are recoverable and will be recovered as time goes on. The Potters are a 2G Data Application team. Whereas the Gunners are a 4G (LTE) Data Application team that can switch to any pattern of play during a game, as against the Potters that are rigid to 1 pattern of play that is based on physicality & direct approach.
wenger is right,lower teams will be stronger now that more money is there.wenger is in many ways an inspiration.when you hav a problem,look for solutions from within.love that kind of mentality from the professor……theres no good in buying jus for the sake of it…when u find solutions from within,you wud become more stronger than straightaway going to outside sources for solutions….
i truly think welbeck cud become a good player.hes got strength,good ball control,and his finishing will improve with time.and if arteta and flamini are going to show up,then team will be fine….we will hav to see
if people were going to jump the gun all the time,you couldnt have a stable team.eg.chelsea fans are saying hazard,cahill and the likes shud be sold.of course players will have ups and downs,but fans shud support them….
Hell even Leicester are willing to invest……….. Watford who gained promotion to the EPL didn’t think their squad was good enough for the EPL(infact their whole squad was a bunch of championship materials)……..but the went ahead to buy 12 players….that’s a whole squad +1…… But Arsenal!…..hmm!…. Instead of reinforcing (Look!…we don’t have to sell key players) and make a strong push to improve on their past records, we think we are good enough where we are!
Get over it. Transfer window is closed. Of course Watford needed reinforcements, they play EPL now. Leicester lost key player(s) so they had to cover that. We did not lost one key player. Why rush it? We added one world class keeper. I’d say good business.
not interested in what u have to say…….Take it elsewhere!
SoOpa AeoN – the new admin! This arrogant clown thinks he has the right to tell people to take their comments elsewhere. . . yet he has yet to make a worthwhile comment himself after 5,555 tries. And that’s just last week!
@Budd, your points make sense! I am with you on this.
If Man Utd fans are complaining of bad business in Martial price, then we had good transfer window.
I think we have to face facts. We are not ever going to win the EPL or any other major competition with Stan Kroenke in charge. You can say what you like about Wenger being stingy, but if we had owners like MC, Chelski or LFC, do you think Wenger wouldn’t of spent? Ray Parlour very rarely says anything against Arsenal, but he said it himself – “Stan Kroenke has no love for Arsenal, he is purely in as a businessman to make money”. And he demonstrated that by taking out a £3-4m dividend – so called advisory services, for which he could provide no evidence of, when we should’ve been putting the extra money towards Suarez. Who ever though it was a good idea to allow Kroenke to become majority shareholder baffles me. We cannot be winners when we are having the life blood sucked out of us, while other clubs are getting performance injections, no matter how great an economist Wenger thinks he is. Anyone think it’s different – please tell me.