After last weeks majestic 4-1 demolition of Liverpool at the Emirates, it was always going to be hard to emulate the performance at relegation-threatened Burnley yesterday, but Aaron Ramsey’s early slice gave the Gunners a lead to defend.
It wasn’t pretty, but Arsenal held on to record their eighth straight win in the Premiership, and Arsene Wenger was in no doubt who earned the points. “I’m pleased with the performance because it was a more fighting performance than a fluent performance.” Le prof said after the game.
“Many people question us on that side but I would first say that I’m surprised by the quality of Burnley. It would be a shame if they go down because they are fantastically well organised, they press very well, they have a great solidarity, they are very fit and I understand now why they took points from the big teams here. We had to fight, we had to be combative until the end and we couldn’t score the second goal. Our defenders played well today and won us the three points.”
Burnley definitely made it hard for us, and made Wenger’s men work harder than Liverpool did last week. “It was a different test. At some stages at the start of the second half I thought we were under pressure to concede a goal because we didn’t start very well. In the last 20 minutes it looked like they got a little bit tired and we could have scored a second goal. There were periods in the game where we need to be tight, well organised and calm at the back, and I think our defenders and goalkeeper deserve credit.”
Now Arsenal have the small matter of an FA Cup semi-final next weekend at Wembley, before facing Chelsea back at home. Wenger is still refusing to admit that we could catch our London rivals by the end of the campaign. “Nothing has changed. Chelsea are still too comfortable. We need a perfect run and we need a non-perfect run from them. We cannot master that, we can only master our attitude. I feel they are still in a comfortable position.
“We want to keep winning because we have to look behind us as well. Manchester City, Manchester United, Southampton, Liverpool and Tottenham are behind us but we have made a little bit of distance between us. Manchester United and Manchester City are closer to us.
“We don’t want to stop the run. We’ve won 16 of the last 18 so we are consistent. There’s a good attitude in the team and great quality. Let’s see. It’s a challenge for a team not to forget how much it hurts to lose a game and focus on winning the next one.”
And if we KEEP winning the next one, and the next one, who knows where it will all end?
Huge coq…. I mean….. Le coq is a beast he is making our team so formidable. I wouldn’t trade him for any DM in the world. He has the perfect blend of strength, tenacity, intelligence, and technical ability and will only get better.
Towards the end of the game I saw a few instances where burnley players saw le coq was in front of them in a 1 on 1 and they literally turned around and went backwards they didn’t even attempt to go by him!
Yeah we won yesterday because team played as a unit and fought hard and this is a very good sign because have lost these kind of physical games in past like against stoke city but we deservedly won the game and now hoping for chelse to lose or atleast a draw and a draw between manchester clubs…
Wenger will need to change system against Chelsea he cannot leave coq to do the work of carzola and ozil otherwise he will be badly exposed and chelski will pick us off he will need to sacrifice one or the other and go for a more solid looking midfield!
not necessarily… he usually parks the bus pretty hard and doesn’t commit many players forward.
Next week to Chelsea game
Arsenal need to put Danny welbeck in the side against Chelsea which is where they fail to have exceptional pace that arsenal possess to fight the threat of hazard and Willian,other than that Fabregas will do whatever he can in his power to muster up a goal so therefore cazorla maybe sacrifices for Ramsey and Ozil which will bring a quick team to boot. The other change has to be Sanchez taking on azpilicueta rather than ivanovich. Arsenal should see out Matic out of the game and widen the pitch as much as arsenal can, this helps players like oxlade chamberlain to run at Chelsea back line.
Also gabriel over mert, as the former is faster and against pacy players like hazard and remy i wouldn’t like to put my trust on mert
it is funny how nobody ever mentions monreal…wtf can he do to be recognised? yes coquelin played well but monreal was motm .did u see the header or to cover for koscielny whom i think for some reason wasn’t fit yesterday…am a big fan of le coq but jim begglin said yesterday le coq was our dm but its as if carsola id tuckn in there with him..lets not dismiss the amount of defencive work carsola is doing..and my oh my did i see a diff ozil yestrday the guy was defending…competition is a good thing afterall we are the gonners nobody is guarented a spot..
OT: matic and fab are one yellow card away from being 2 match ban.. i wish they collect it before the meet us either today or against man u..coyg and again d noisy neighbours lost…..
He always do a good job but not recognize by ppl. I certainly pick him over gibbs for chelski match
it wasnt just coquelin who defended well but d whole team. we wer very well organised thruout d game and didnt give any more den a half chance to get a goal. and i really loved d way we killed d game in d last 20 minutes by just moving d ball around and making opposition tired.
First of all, Le Coq was massive for us yesterday. Bailed us out on numerous occasions when Bellerin was caught out of position. His interception was just exceptional and a joy to watch.
Chelsea next..knowing mourinho and the way his team play, adding the fact that we are the one who need to win, he will most likely set his team to play a draw. Sitting deep, looking to frustrate our attack, forcing us to commit men forward and launch on a counter attack.
We must not fall into his trap. Make sure we keep our composure, play to our strength and hopefully we will prevail.
COYG!!
bellerin isn’t always “caught out” he is meant to go up. that ‘s why oq is important
Well said. We basically play with 3 in defense instead of 4 for most of the game if the opposition has a more defensive strategy. This releases Sanchez to a more central role because Bellerin fills that wing position. Bellerin will appear to be out of position but he is really adding to our attack because the defense can be trusted without him against certain teams.