Better! Much better. Superb. by Konstantin Mitov
I have to say that after Crystal Palace and the way fans turned on the players, they started to actually do something. Why don’t they do it every game? We went to Stoke, a place where our record is poor and we destroyed them.
The ref helped them on their goal, when there was a clear foul on Bellerin, before Crouch scored a la Maradona with his hand, but the one ref that really hates us – Mike Dean was blind to the situation. And when were under severe pressure, Alexis scored injured to shut up those Stoke fans, before we finished them off with a fourth.
Nacho Monreal was superb in LWB position. Just compare his influence to Gibbs and you’re laughing really. I was surprised we dropped Welbeck, because he offers so much more to our game than Giroud, who did score 2 goals and I must say Coquelin was excellent too, and Ramsey came on and was good. And Holding, dear Lord this young man Holding is so good. Hell, even Ozil who I’ve been really critical of lately was ok today, he was some times even pressing! That 1-2 with Alexis was magic!
In all fairness, this isn’t the best of the Potters squad we’ve seen but god I hate Stoke. You know if we didn’t have to beg that West Ham trip up Liverpool, I’d be over the moon with the fact we beat Mourinho and Southampton and Stoke away in a row! Usually we’d take 0 – 3 points out of a possible 9 in these fixtures. Of course though, with Arsenal, there is always a catch! We are doing it when it no longer depends on us.
The new formation and the pressing forces teams into mistakes. And against bad teams like Stoke, this should kill them with the quality we have and it did. Now, back to reality, we’re still likely to finish 5th, and the lack of champions league football will hurt us. If you don’t believe me, ask how many years Liverpool are trying to stabilize back in the top 4 and it ain’t easy once you are out.
And to make things worse, our two best players of late, Alexis and Oxlade-Chamberlain went both off injured and if we miss the top 4 and the FA cup and I still think we’ll fail to get both, it’ll be a huge damage to our club.
Tomorrows game at West Ham defines if we’ll have it in our hands or we’ll pay the price of our mediocrity for so many years. In all honesty, they did help us back with Lasagna gate and I’m desperate for another shoulder up from them after they killed Spurs title hopes. Lastly though, we wouldn’t have been in this situation if the desire and fight we showed today, spanned across the entire season.
If you look at it one way, the top 4 is better for the future, while the FA cup is better for the history, cause historically trophies count, but in terms of adding better players, and keeping current ones, we really need 4th more than the FA cup. Finally, there was a little banner that flew over the game and I have to agree with it. For the better future of this football club, we need change. Scrap battles for 4th isn’t my definition of success, neither is the FA cup.
We need to destroy a dictatorship to replace it with a strategy that would bring back the glory days at this football club. And of course for tomorrow, Go Irons!
Konstantin
Simple they don’t have a cup final place to play for. Shows that the manager has lost them, we need an injection of quality and the right manager
Our manager thinks 4th place is more important than winning trophy???
Two reasons 1- Because mentally they think they can always get into top four…like for the last 20 years. 2- no pressure regarding winning the league or competing in champions league.
There is pressure of finishing top 4
Financial pressure and getting into Champions League next season
We def had more pressure on us than Stoke
you must be barmy
Because they “love to see you cry….”
Bec we have many underperformers in the team and a manager who doesnt punish them but instead reward them, so its normal that the drive to win is not there so often in the team
We need more kampfgeist and less to what wenger likes to serve
Comon you west ham
Monreal instead of Gibbs makes the difference. Leave Him there. End of Story. CB
wenger is only reason gibbs has a career here
same as jack and theo
stole a living here
muffin man, u are to hard on jack and gibbs
And Ramsey! He’s the worst high-paid player in the Prem. Ramsey epitomizes Wenger’s delusion.
Anybody see Sanchez’s celebration after his goal? Did he say I’m staying? Kinda looked like it.
I would not sell
Let him run out his contract if it comes to it, spend a lot and wisely to show how serious we can be, if proven he will stay
With him money is not the main factor, he scored and was like, see me, even through pain i get the job done, where are the others
That’s risky. For one I think Sanchez is a man of determination. I think if he is determined to leave nothing will stop him. Whether that means refusing to play/train, he’ll make it happen. A player of his quality can’t become a sunk investment. I don’t think many clubs would let a player of his quality leave for nothing. Reinvestment is a vital component of club management.
Job Borrisia Dortmund let Robert Lewandovski leave for free to Bayern, PSG let Ibra go to United for free. We may be getting a left back that Chelsea bid $25 mil for for free in the summer, it happens we should keep him show the right ambition in the transfer market , get world class players that are leaders off men and he will sign .
#WENGER OUT
#NO NEW CONTRACT
#KROENKE OUT
I hope Liverpool win and seal their top 4.
I’m really tired of 4th place and getting humiliated by Bayern and Barcelona in UCl every year. Atleast Europa League is a trophy we have a chance of going further after round of 16. Wenger will still be our manager for at least 2 years no matter what. Stan Kroeneke will only change Wenger if he fails to reach UCL in next 2 years.
I don’t understand that rationale, it seems incredibly myopic. You are tired of getting hammered in the UCL. So you want to see us win a lesser cup? You do realise getting hammered by Bayern or not, arsenal not playing in the UCL lowers our profile. Why would you want our profile lowered? If it’s because as you’ve stated that’s the only way to get rid of Wenger that rationale is also quite silly. As I said before us not being in the UCL lowers our profile, harder to bring in quality players. While our rivals are in the top 4 they’ll have that edge. Just look at the rebuild effort united is STILL going through and they are again coming up short. You think we have the money to do what they’ve done? We could be caught in the wilderness like Liverpool were a while back. Man that’s a stupid thing to think…
Whilst I do agree 4th place is crucial for attracting good players particularly for a club like ours that already has major problems attracting players it wants, this past year our profile was raised to the exptend we became the laughing stock of the world of football thanks to our CL profile.
If they ever considered joining Arsenal after this past CL season you can forget the Griezman’s, Aubamayangs, Lacazette’s, Lukaku’s even considering Arsenal as a viable option. We are not taking seriously as a club. Even the normal entices of respect between clubs was disregarded by Bayern when they joked about the 10-2.
If you are a top top football player and you want to win major trophies you don’t consider Arsenal even with their CL football. This is sad but true.
@ Jib – am also tired of the hammerings. 5,6,8,10…you name it every type of humiliating scoreline has been handed to us. If missing pit on UCL is how we will rid ourselves of Wenger then so be it..Holding, Xhaka, Lucas Perez, Mustafi they would all have joined even without UCL…its not like they were playing it before..a transfer for them is a pay bump I.e its just about money. If we can pay they will join .
I don’t buy this thing that you can’t sign quality players if not in CL. Chelsea and MU weren’t in CL this season and they still managed to sign world class players. It’s all about convincing players you have ambition, and of course paying the asking price.
Acording to some sources Sead Kolasinac has agreed to join Arsenal from Schalke on a free transfer 5 year contract with 100k pw.
The mentality of our players is pathetic.
90 percent of our players are all selfie takers and celebrate 4th place as if it is like winning a major trophy. Wenger is the most ambition less manager of all time. He has made all our players believe 4th place is a trophy. I will give a big party to my friends when Mr Bean 2.0 leaves Arsenal???
Difficult to call man of match for that one. Between Coquelin and Monreal I feel, it’s hard to say which. Then you have Alexis with a blinder of an assist and a game winning goal. I really wouldn’t want to have to call it, but I’d nearly give it to Holding alone for when he upended Arnautovic.
Fans need to protest correctly
We now had a chance to get rid of both Gazadis and Wenger
Protest with a right strategy and we will have both out
Jansen you think we can’t get the players, that is crap cause if you pay the money the players will come. Transfer fee and Wages. Arsenal is still an attractive club and with a few WC players and the right manager we will be back where we belong. Bring in Allegri , Isco, Lacazette , Kolisinac, and Rudiger and watch the club fly my friend. He’ll we could challenge with this squad if we just got Allegri
#WENGER OUT
#NO NEW CONTRACT
#KROENKE OUT