Arsenal Thread 2013/14

[afc16]

I was one of the Arsenal fans today in the Shed Upper Row 3 just to the left of he goal as you look at it.

So I had an excellent view of the game and goals.

Before the start when I saw the team selection, I winced. No Flamini? What was Wenger thinking? And Podolski on the left? He's been hopeless there. As for the Ox in midfield. He's indisciplined and gives the ball away too much.

I feared the worst and having been in the away end at Anfield, events turned sour very quickly and in a déjà vu way.

Tactics were insane. Team selection was crap. I know we had key players missing and don't have the squad strength of Chelsea but we should never lose any game by that margin. I have been to City away, Liverpool away and now Chelsea away.

We are back to where we probably belong battling for 4th spot.

I feel pissed off and will finish the rest of this bottle of wine and seek solace in English cricket (oh fuck!)

I hope City or Liverpool win the title. I can't bear the idea of Chelsea winning it who by the way seem to attract a particularly obnoxious type of fan.

Good post mate. It's awful for something like that to happen once a season but 3 times now is a feckin disgrace.

Its hard to explain how we are so awful in these games. I mean, I can see why we are awful, but why is it being allowed to happen?!
Before yesterday we had 13 clean sheets, joint best in the league. We can go to Spurs, to Munich, to Dortmund and put on good defensive performances. We can play Liverpool and Chelsea and Utd at home and not concede a goal. So why oh why when we go to these places and play like a feckin pub team? We've conceded 34 goals this season, and 17 of these, yep 50%, have been in these three games!

None of that front 6 should be a starter in our strongest team next year. We need an upgrade at defensive midfield, left wing and up front! Arteta's legs are gone, yet he flanks him with Ox who doesn't have the awareness yet to play these big games away from home, and leaves Flamini on the bench?! Podolski just doesn't suit the system at all, and the less I say about Giroud the better. That's not knee jerk, I've been saying the same about Giroud forever.

It really was just a rerun of the Liverpool game. You would think after that spanking, the tactics would be to stay behind the ball, keep it tight, stay nice and compact at least for the first 20mins. Watch those first 3 goals again, literally no midfield, and Sagna and Gibbs aren't even in shot in any of them.

A total joke like. And Szcezney can shove his selfie up his arse!!


Ah.......that's better.......:-)

In the cold light of day and after some enforced sober reflection ( now that the neurofen has kicked in after overdoing the laughing juice last night) I have come to one firm conclusion.

I have always been firmly behind Wenger. Always recognising that no team has a divine right to year on year success and there are cycles in football etc. etc.

I recognised that after the move from Highbury to the Emirates ( vital if we were to be able to generate income to compete at the top level) there would be a long period of relative lack of success because of financial restraints.

To give Wenger his due, before he arrived, we finished in the top 4 only 23 times in 92 years. After he arrived we have never been out of the top 4 which is a huge achievement when you consider the lack of money these past 8 years.

However, those financial constraints have disappeared now. This should be the promised land we were told to expect. As a club we are currently sitting on cash in excess of £150m. We should be able to compete now in signing marquee players.

It is just not acceptable to be beaten 6-3, 5-1 and 6-0 in the same season. It smacks of gutlessness and mediocrity. He knew Theo was injured for the season, he knew we needed a striker and what did we get in January? A makeweight midfielder with an injured back, for Chrissakes!

We get beaten at Anfield and does he learn the lesson that you can not have both full backs sprinting upfield and leaving our 2 central defenders to cope with Chelsea and Liverpools attackers running at them in full pelt on the counter.

Tactics were abysmal. Team selection was plain daft. No Flamini and a slow Podolski out wide who often fails to track back.

Criminal. No excuse for not learning from previous results.

As far as I am concerned, failure to win the FA Cup or a failure to secure a top 4 finish is unacceptable. In either of those instances Wenger has to go.

Maybe like Moses, Wenger is not fated to see the Promised Land.

brilliant and i agree with all of it.

it was pointed out in a blog that for almost 2 years and 3 transfer windows we've had giroud as our only realistic striker. that is incompetence of the highest order.

we had a realistic chance to sign higuin, and we pulled out to chase suarez which was very unrealistic. other strikers have been available. mourinho managed to get eto, who is proving his worth now. im pretty sure we could have got lesser strikers like remy, michu etc if we really wanted. berbatov? hernandez in exchange for rvp?

so there are no excuses about the right players not being available.

also we knew ramsey and walcott were out long term 1st week of jan. he had all month to buy and like you said, instead as usual chooses the cheap skate option of a free loan signing, the type of player you'd be suprised if even a slightly lower club went for. to cap it all of he was injured which we also knew.

 

[Ronuja]

I was one of the Arsenal fans today in the Shed Upper Row 3 just to the left of he goal as you look at it.

So I had an excellent view of the game and goals.

Before the start when I saw the team selection, I winced. No Flamini? What was Wenger thinking? And Podolski on the left? He's been hopeless there. As for the Ox in midfield. He's indisciplined and gives the ball away too much.

I feared the worst and having been in the away end at Anfield, events turned sour very quickly and in a déjà vu way.

Tactics were insane. Team selection was crap. I know we had key players missing and don't have the squad strength of Chelsea but we should never lose any game by that margin. I have been to City away, Liverpool away and now Chelsea away.

We are back to where we probably belong battling for 4th spot.

I feel pissed off and will finish the rest of this bottle of wine and seek solace in English cricket (oh fuck!)

I hope City or Liverpool win the title. I can't bear the idea of Chelsea winning it who by the way seem to attract a particularly obnoxious type of fan.

Good post mate. It's awful for something like that to happen once a season but 3 times now is a feckin disgrace.

Its hard to explain how we are so awful in these games. I mean, I can see why we are awful, but why is it being allowed to happen?!
Before yesterday we had 13 clean sheets, joint best in the league. We can go to Spurs, to Munich, to Dortmund and put on good defensive performances. We can play Liverpool and Chelsea and Utd at home and not concede a goal. So why oh why when we go to these places and play like a feckin pub team? We've conceded 34 goals this season, and 17 of these, yep 50%, have been in these three games!

None of that front 6 should be a starter in our strongest team next year. We need an upgrade at defensive midfield, left wing and up front! Arteta's legs are gone, yet he flanks him with Ox who doesn't have the awareness yet to play these big games away from home, and leaves Flamini on the bench?! Podolski just doesn't suit the system at all, and the less I say about Giroud the better. That's not knee jerk, I've been saying the same about Giroud forever.

It really was just a rerun of the Liverpool game. You would think after that spanking, the tactics would be to stay behind the ball, keep it tight, stay nice and compact at least for the first 20mins. Watch those first 3 goals again, literally no midfield, and Sagna and Gibbs aren't even in shot in any of them.

A total joke like. And Szcezney can shove his selfie up his arse!!


Ah.......that's better.......:-)

This is the most galling part.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

Koscielny out of their midweek game and Wenger doesn't know when he's back. Good news for us for Sat

 

[Gillespie]

Koscielny out of their midweek game and Wenger doesn't know when he's back. Good news for us for Sat

And it gets even better for you City boys...........Mike Dean is the referee appointed to the match. We rarely win with him in charge.

 

[Chancy Termites]

Oxlade Chamberlain cleared??? What a crazy decision. He handled the ball because he thought he was stopping a clear goal scoring opportunity. If he thought the ball was going wide then surely he'd have left it alone.

 

[Corky]

Oxlade Chamberlain cleared??? What a crazy decision. He handled the ball because he thought he was stopping a clear goal scoring opportunity. If he thought the ball was going wide then surely he'd have left it alone.

If you try to stop a goal by handling on the line and it goes in anyway it is a yellow, so it seems right that the incident did no warrant a red.

The goal scoring opportunity was not denied in either case, just unsporting behaviour. It has been the same since 1991.

 

[Chancy Termites]

Oxlade Chamberlain cleared??? What a crazy decision. He handled the ball because he thought he was stopping a clear goal scoring opportunity. If he thought the ball was going wide then surely he'd have left it alone.

If you try to stop a goal by handling on the line and it goes in anyway it is a yellow, so it seems right that the incident did no warrant a red.

The goal scoring opportunity was not denied in either case, just unsporting behaviour. It has been the same since 1991.

Oh, then I stand corrected. Thought it was a straight red. Should be, the cheating twat.

 

[ake_stan]

Oxlade Chamberlain cleared??? What a crazy decision. He handled the ball because he thought he was stopping a clear goal scoring opportunity. If he thought the ball was going wide then surely he'd have left it alone.

If you try to stop a goal by handling on the line and it goes in anyway it is a yellow, so it seems right that the incident did no warrant a red.

The goal scoring opportunity was not denied in either case, just unsporting behaviour. It has been the same since 1991.

Oh, then I stand corrected. Thought it was a straight red. Should be, the cheating twat.

How can you call Arsenal cheats? They play football the proper way and have no links to corruption whatsoever.
Its us who are the cheats spending

 

[Bilboblue]

just to elaborate, basic and stupid because even if you don't agree he was the best, to say he was not even close is just silly. i think he was the best but most people would agree he was at least 1 of the best 2-3 players at that point, which is why he was being talked about as being player of the year if he carries on that form.

Sturridge, Suarez, Negredo, Aguero, Hazard, Yaya, there are 6 players that were better than Ramsey until the point he got injured.

Still a very good (and massively improved) player though, wonder where he will go to win trophies after the FA Cup you will get this season?

By the way gooners, feel the pain, not so funny seeing your side ship goals galore, is it? Now you know how we felt every time we played you a few years back! (that's said a bit tongue-in-cheek)

well a lot of this sort of stuff is also based on opinions so on that basis in hindsight i can't questions yours, i can only argue mine.

in almost every media circle/pundits/newspapers, the player they were mentioning was ramsey as likely to be winning player of the year.

none of the players you mentioned (that i remember anyway) were single handedly winning games, taking games by the scruff of the neck, scoring spectacular goals on as regular basis as ramsey was. also a lot of it was the scale of the improvement as well from previous seasons.

remember that liverpool before december were not playing as spectacularly as they are now even though suarez was still scoring goals.

neither were yourselves or chelsea.

as for where will ramsey go, hes just signed a new contract and i dont think city fans (yet) are in any position to goad us about losing our best players.

we could finish this season with the fa cup, and you could easily end up with just the capital one cup. who would have had the better season?

i think this season has showed that we have the *majority* of the ingredients needed to challenge for the title and other trophies. even after our rubbish 2nd half of the season, we are only a handful of points behind the leaders. remember the other 3 teams have at least 1 if not 2/3 top top strikers, world class ones. we don't have any.

we also have a very good defence overall.

all in all we are not far away at all, and i wouldn't question our ability to compete for trophies beyond this season if i was a fan of any other club.

Must have missed the bit where Adebayor, Nasri, RvP, Fabregas etc. left then, sorry about that. If I wanted to be a twat, I could quite easily goad you about your best players leaving... AND doing better upon exiting (Adebayor excepted).

Agree about your defence, it is very good, but it's your manager fault you have neither a top class keeper, or a top class centre FORWARD, he treats the clubs money like it is his own. Can you tell me which top class striker Chelsea have, apparently?

I do question your ability beyond this season, purely because, yet again, at the business end of the season, you are proving to be not up to it. Not including the FA Cup in that as all the other top sides messed up allowing you pretty much a free run at it.

As for who would have had the better season, if we finish the league above you, I would say us, even if/when you do win the FA Cup.

I still think Wenger, great manager he once was, is limiting your ability to challenge for the title, he has been there too long and really cannot see the wood for the trees.

All subjective of course, merely putting across my views.

ediy in, I meant forward, not centre half!

 

[BlueTG]

Meh, I wish Gooney was here.