Match Reaction vs Chelsea (away).

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

I'm not talking about the quality of the player, I'm talking about the style and the game such players are best suited to. Keown was from the same school and that's fine, he was a good defender too, but you need a mix of players to make a good team. Stick 11 Lampards or Keowns on the pitch though and you're fucked. But we can have 1 Keown and 1 Bergkamp, can't we?

Sunday's result is turning out to be embarrassing in so many new ways. Wow, well done Arsenal, you didn't get thumped 6-0. Wow, the lads turned up, well done, fit to wear the shirt. Wow, we defended properly. Wow, we pressed the ball. Wow, we kicked the ball towards the opposition goal.

None of these things are supposed to be remarkable, not unless the underlying theme is Arsenal are shit, but this was pretty good by their standards. Not sure if fools like Keown realise this is what they are effectively doing when they turn what was really only a bog standard performance into a special moment and then applaud journeymen and conclude we don't need anything better. It's like Keown is revelling in our second tier status.

When the chavs defend, do the pundits say wow, they are defending?

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I agree with this and I would go as far as to say the Chelsea performance should be the standard we set Period. We shouldn't need to organise ourselves just for the big game when under immense pressure, we should be putting in this type of performance regularly if we harbour ambitions to challenge for the title. Wenger and Gazidis regularly tell us we have world class players in our squad and that they believe we can challenge so we should be demonstrating that on a weekly basis.

No but watching us it's obvious to see its not our forte. Yes it is disappointing that it should be seen as uncharacteristic. For me what's even more galling is that Spurs of all teams are at their best one of the few sides that have got the balance absolutely right between attack and defence. And we know if they were capable of doing that all season that they would have been champions last season or the season before.

Arsenal used to have a unique identity, and we just don't anymore and that's the most dispiriting thing. Wenger sets us up at times like we are a team that just has to show up to get three points like we were the invincibles or Barcelona, he can't get it into his head that no matter what he sees in training we have a lot of average players picking up big pay packets.

Liverpool are just as shocking in defence, but you get the impression that this is a team that on its day could beat anyone or at least put in a performance.

That's the irony, Wenger is seen as stubbornly sticking to a footballing philosophy. What philosophy?. It's easier to see what's going on in magic eye pictures.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

I would give Wilshere more games. I think in form, he is probably one of most competent central midfielders at keeping posession and driving forward with the ball.

Well it would be Cazorla but in all honesty we've probably seen the last of the poor guy, Wenger broke him

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Tbh at this stage I'd give Maitland-Niles a go at CM rather than Jack. The guy has the physical and technical attributes to play in the role and eventually go on to be a lot better than Jack is - the club really rate him highly. I'd love for him to start getting 10 mins at the end of most games instead of a Jack or an Elneny tbh.

The problem with Jack is that given that's unlikely going to sign a new contract (due to the way he feels he's been unrespected by the club) so there's not point really developing him further at this point. If we play him and he recaptures some of his form, it's only ultimately going to benefit another club.

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Originally Posted by AFC Leveller

The team have no excuses now, they showed they could do it away at a big club and they need to show the same discipline and shape every game now.

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People said the same thing after we beat Man City a couple of years ago. You know the one where Coquelin had the performance of his life. That performance was much more impressive than yesterday's one because we were playing against a much better attacking team.

We learned nothing from that game because we've absolutely destroyed more times than I can remember.

Nothing will change from yesterday's game.

I think it is embarrassing that we are being praised for getting a 0-0 and doing the basics right. If we turn up once every 4-5 keys games then inevitable we won't be able to challenge. As someone said, Spuds have the right balance and approach to almost every game and they hardly get their ass whopped by anyone, they are hard to beat and create chances against anybody.

Could it be that Wenger only works as hard in the training ground after a heavy defeat and then goes back to the same old tried and failed method. He has to drill his players and coach then properly for every game, there is no other way.

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Originally Posted by Penguin

People said the same thing after we beat Man City a couple of years ago. You know the one where Coquelin had the performance of his life. That performance was much more impressive than yesterday's one because we were playing against a much better attacking team.

We learned nothing from that game because we've absolutely destroyed more times than I can remember.

Nothing will change from yesterday's game.

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It is weird that we never really built on that performance, we showed that day that we can beat the big sides provided we do the basics right.

I honestly think it comes from Wenger's approach, he doesn't place too much importance to tactics, formations, discipline etc and it shows when you look at his record in the big games.

Yeah that's definitely the problem. The funny thing is that it was the players who begged Wenger to let them play more defensively in that game. If they didn't do that I wonder if we would have been on the wrong end of another thrashing.

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Originally Posted by Penguin

People said the same thing after we beat Man City a couple of years ago. You know the one where Coquelin had the performance of his life. That performance was much more impressive than yesterday's one because we were playing against a much better attacking team.

We learned nothing from that game because we've absolutely destroyed more times than I can remember.

Nothing will change from yesterday's game.

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Or how about the game against Man Utd, or even Chelsea last season? Plenty of these one off games scattered around the years. It means nothing.

That City win and the manner of the performance was an anomaly, it's very difficult to draw conclusions from anything we do that's out of character because it happens so rarely.

Though in fairness I don't think anyone genuinely believes this Chelsea performance will set a precedent, we've all been around the block one too many times for that. I just don't really like the performance being spoken about as though we've gone above and beyond. For a start we didn't even win. It's small time and reserved for the cannon fodder of the league when they take points off the big teams. Chelsea are certainly not our superiors and we should always look to take them on in this manner.

I'm sure we will see our annual go nuts and hammer a decent team match soon as well. Another seasonal anomaly.

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Chelsea are certainly not our superiors and we should always look to take them on in this manner.

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Of course they are. Just compare their recent trophy haul vs ours. They have the better manager and arguably better players. They have a better recruitment policy. Their transfer budget is spent on transfer fees and doesn't include the player's wages. We're inferior in every single way except the moral high road way.

His point was that we shouldn't be celebrating playing for a draw against them as if we were Huddersfield or Burnley. We should be going there to get a result every time instead of bending over to any half decent team.

Realistically that wont happen unless we get a new manager.

I don't think we are celebrating like that. I'm pleased we got a draw, it was more than I expected and it does say something about the state of things that we don't expect to get anything in these games right now.
But most people's attitude, on here at least, seems to be that it was a good result and performance and we should be expecting that all the time, not every so often in one offs.

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Originally Posted by Penguin

His point was that we shouldn't be celebrating playing for a draw against them as if we were Huddersfield or Burnley. We should be going there to get a result every time instead of bending over to any half decent team.

Realistically that wont happen unless we get a new manager.

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I agree with that!

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

That City win and the manner of the performance was an anomaly, it's very difficult to draw conclusions from anything we do that's out of character because it happens so rarely.

Though in fairness I don't think anyone genuinely believes this Chelsea performance will set a precedent, we've all been around the block one too many times for that. I just don't really like the performance being spoken about as though we've gone above and beyond. For a start we didn't even win. It's small time and reserved for the cannon fodder of the league when they take points off the big teams. Chelsea are certainly not our superiors and we should always look to take them on in this manner.

I'm sure we will see our annual go nuts and hammer a decent team match soon as well. Another seasonal anomaly.

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This post nailed it.

I don't think we can be considered alongside the big clubs of the EPL if we're pleasantly surprised we got the basics right, earning a draw and just relieved it wasn't all over within the first half hour.