Flamini is in fact only banned for three matches, not four as first thought. Will miss Palace (h), Liv (a), Man U (h).
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Flamini is in fact only banned for three matches, not four as first thought. Will miss Palace (h), Liv (a), Man U (h).
what was said last night? oh yes, it was "mourinho would never get a draw like we did yesterday, his teams would be up for it, he completely screwed wenger with his mind games etc etc"
a goaless draw against a side who not so long ago conceded 5 to a championship side.
:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie the Optimist
You really are not reading posts, are you? They got a draw but did you see how many shots on goal they had? I dont know about other posters but I clearly mentioned that we did not show up.. if we had shown up and lost/drew, its a different thing. Not giving a fuck is another. If you think that Chelsea today did not give a fuck about winning, then you are just here on the WUM
Hysterical reaction.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie the Optimist
:haha:
Dont need him tbh..Quote:
Originally Posted by Munchies
if you want to see what a near hysterical reaction from a manager really is, go check out mourinho's post match interview. he's complaining about a team playing for a draw. thats a hysterical reaction
Maureen deliberately drew, it's all mind games. We'll be lulled into a false sense of security now. Tbf, the guy's a genius, the way he toys with Wenger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fakeyank
yeah they just drew with a side one point above bottom placed cardiff, in the relegation zone, at home, against a side who have conceded about 30 goals this year alone.
given the reaction from a lot on here last night, this is a far worse result then ours, yet oh look excuses are being made. he's just sold his best player from the last two seasons and draw with a relegation threatened side at home.
IMO everytime we've won the title we've looked like a title winning side, producing some top notch football and schooling teams. I think we've been grinding out results this season but have been very lacklustre and eventually it was going to catch up with us, unless we sign some quality now we'll fall away in February/March, I don't think we have the quality in the squad and think we have too many players who just can't last a season.
We've improved this season, but in particular we've improved defensively, going forward we've been quite average. We need to improve in that department and need some quality up front.
Key injuries, something our closest opponents don't have to deal with.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
Yeah but they're key injuries we get every single season, at some point you have to spot the pattern and try to do something about it, we persistently ignore the fact some players are just injury prone. When something happens so often you have to try and do something about it, we don't seem to.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
I do think we just lack something as well though, we seem to find it very hard to break down teams due to our slow style of play, a pacey forward who can get some goals is a must.
Like I said we've been efficient this season without being particularly impressive, you never get the feeling this team is going to play the opposition off the park and thump them.
Ozil is a hell of a player and yet we're just no using him to his strengths, he's best when he's running at pace at the opposition when his team counters, we're so slow we rarely ever see that and almost make him look ordinary. He's so much better than we are making him look.
You say that, Zim, but what people tend to forget is that in our title-winning Invincibles season, we only really kicked on from January. A Manchester United defeat at the Molineux put us top as well as indifferent results from Chelsea meaning that there was very little pressure on us from that point on. Before January of 04, we were rather lacklustre ourselves (in stark similarity to this term)Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
I think we can still push on, but this Manchester City side look like a whole different beast. A Chelsea win at the Etihad might just demoralize them a little, and make them lose heart for their next few fixtures, a la The Arsenal (although that's heart speaking over head)
The most frustrating thing for me is that when we've had à very real shot for the title, a near impeccable side is looming over us. Chelsea did the same in 05. It's frustrating in that we're not competing against the Man City of last season, or even the title-winning side of the season before, where the slightest bit of pressure would cause them to wobble. :(
Last season wasn't so bad, but we seem to be back to the old pattern this season. Point is, even with extra money we can't staff each position with multi million quid playas.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
Bad result and performance but some of the responses are cringeworthy to say the least.
Most of us would have jumped at the chance to be 1 point-of-top past the mid point of the season, even after we signed Ozil let alone before that! We're competing with two squad filled with infinite money signings and top quality international players unable to even make the bench. And we're still giving a good account of ourselves ......
Chill out, despite Man City's result tonight, they will also drop points along the way and give us oppurtunities to catch them up.
There were always going to be setbacks along the way. Last night will be one of them - the real test of our character is to see how well we bounce back against them.
It's not one game. Wenger did this against Everton and Napoli too. There's no reason for him to be so negative and if anything costs us over the season it'll probably be that.
Once as a club we start making the full use of our resources, with very little to spare and go into seasons covering all our bases squad wise with a concerted effort.....then we can really really complain about the depth of our opponents pockets.
For some time now we haven't even been competing with our former selves, never mind the modern day behemoth, of petro-dollar clubs.
Time for Wenger to show his real manager-smarts and show the rest who's boss despite their money....lest he pack it in, we pack it in and we just accept the climate around us.
They can't all acquire all of the best talent in the world all of the time....so it's a bloody good thing the man we have is just about aware of every decent footballer known to the human species.
And he is also aware of Bendtner
Not really relevant. Would we have jumped at this position having been 7 points clear less than 2 months ago is the more pertinent one.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico
Given that City's form since then has been P12 W11 D1 L0 it's hardly a huge capitulation.Quote:
Originally Posted by IBK
I think that drives home the point of just how buggeringly hard it is to win the Premiership.
It's been some time since we properly challenged and it's easy to forget the consistent level on you need to perform at.
We've been playing at a consistent level for months, the best league record of any English team in a calendar year last year.
But that does tend to gloss over the crunch period we experienced this time last year.
From Jan up until the Bayern away game in mid March, which is generally considered "The Turning Point", our record in all competitions was: W6 D3 L5
Which includes losses to Bayern, City, Chelsea, Sperms and Blackburn and draws with Swans, Soton and Pool.
It may be that this time of year is when the attritional effect of fatigue and injuries finally start to impact.
I have a feeling we’ve adapted our style of play to preserve energy. We hardly pressed Southampton and we’ve been taking it easy for a while now so maybe the message is to win but play smart and save energy. Injuries are kicking in because of fatigue so maybe that has the team pumping their brakes. We really need to add numbers this Friday if that’s the worry. We need competition for places to keep performance levels up. Some won’t agree but I think Monreal has really stepped his game up to keep Gibbs out of the squad. Gibbs will be desperate to win his spot back. Same goes for Pod. You can see he really wants to get game time.
I was looking back (Oh statto.com, how I love thee) and noticed that in the Anfield '89 season we won the league with 76 points, Liverpool got the same of course and Forest in 3rd only got 64.
Last year we got 73 points and just about scraped into 4th.
The top few sides, bolstered by CL money and billionaire sugar-daddys, don't lose much these days.
You can't really afford slip-ups any more.
Little doubt about it. We are playing with little bit handbrake. Playing in short bursts, trying to grab a goal or two and then relying on the defence to edge it. Hasn't worked though, has it? Everyone is injured as usual. At some point if we want to really give this a go we'll have to really give it a go.Quote:
I have a feeling we’ve adapted our style of play to preserve energy.
This team is being built to contain.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Something you never thought you'd see from a Wenger side.
Now it's a serious struggle to win games after going behind, they're not used to it and it throws the initial game plan out the window.
The Ramsey and Walcott injuries are bloody unfortunate, just as both had stepped up their game.
on the plus side, we rarely go behind. I'm really not bothered about the 'style' issue. For years arsenal fans have been moaning that results are more important than being pretty. If you want the best of both worlds, you need to pile up £30m squad players like Man City so that when your best attacking players (like Ramsey and Walcott) get injured, you've got a Dzeko-level player to bring on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
The first half against Southampton is a worry whichever way you cut it. Haven't seen us play in such a negative and toothless manner for years.
The two billionaire boy clubs finished on 75 (Chelsea) and 78 (Man City) points. Man Utd walked it on 89 points. A mid 80s score is usually what it takes to win the league and it’s been like that since United won the treble and walked the league on 91 points. We’ve had to push for a mid 80s score ever since and that was before the oil money. We’ve only hit a mid 80s score once since Vieria left and we won the FA Cup and we struggle to break past the 70+ mark in most seasons. It’s a tougher league but we’ve also dropped off quality wise. We need to raise the bar and start hitting the 80 mark again or high 70s at least.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Complete exaggeration. We've been just as poor and negative in many games this season. But we've usually won them so nobody gives it a second thought. That's just the way we play (the conservative part anyway, not the poor part).Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Quote:
Originally Posted by IBK
@IBK - Letters point is spot on. We've actually been quite fairly good, it's just that City have been on a ridicolous level.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
We all suspected that City and Chelsea would eventually close the gap as their squads were bigger and everyone still had them as the favourites so I don't know why we're all surprised all of a sudden. To be where we are is a cause of celebration, not misery and doom.
To an extent yes it does highlight how hard it can be at times, but it's not always this way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fist of Lehmann
Man Utd were 12 points clear this point last season, despite not playing that well and having dropped not that much fewer points than we have this season. It's just that everyone else was crap and no one else was consistent enough to put together a run to challenge for the league. City had thier problems with Mancini, Chelsea had the problems of Benitez/Di Matteo and we were our usual selves. If we were up against similar City and Chelsea teams this year, we've be storming the league right now (assuming the current Utd team with Moyes).
It's just our fucking luck isn't it? :sulk:
What points tally would you consider respectable for this season? You've said you fancied us for the title (or at least thought the title was for the taking this year). Well Man City are looking like they'll hit 90. Several tough games left but I'd be disappointed if we got less than 80.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Thankfully, we’ve ditched the suicidal high backline. Was reading Arseblog today or one of the columns and didn’t we manage to beat Southampton during the home tie because we pressed them when high up the pitch? Goalkeeper mistakes? I thought our defensive tactic was to press within the first few seconds of losing the ball then back off and contain if unsuccessful. We’ve stopped pressing as hard and it’s not the first time we’ve seen this. I remember when we first started playing a 4-3-3 we were pressing hard and as a unit but that stopped as the season went on. We’d also see a high pressing game in odd games like that one game against Chelsea and then we’d abandon that tactic. We’ll see what we do over the next few games.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Also png I don't really understand your logic. You say mid 80s has been enough because that's what the clubs that did win the league needed to achieve in recent years. But the fact that they've got more surely means the bar has gone up a lot from, say, our 98 title win. We would've needed 95 points to retain the title in 2005, and 90 last year.
I'd be disappointed if we didn't hit the 80 mark either. But saying that, I'd have no problems if we won the league with 79 points but bitterly disappointed if we ended up on 90 but lost our last game to Norwich which hands City the title.Quote:
Originally Posted by Syn
Also bear in mind things like this:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/40...a-soccer-game/Quote:
Soccer players don't run at the same pace for a game's entire 90 minutes. Running speeds vary from jogging to moderate running and sprinting. Quite often, a player will even walk during a game. Research data shows, however, that the degree of moderate running and sprinting activities has dramatically increased in the past several years in professional soccer. The number of so called "high-intensity" bursts performed by teams per game nearly doubled in a three-year span, to the Washington Post story. What's more, players increased the amount of ground they covered during sprints by 40 percent, a sign the game is becoming more intense and that players are raising the bar for physical condition standards.
I don't think I've seen a EPL side play with that level of pressing and intensity for so long. Probably a sign of things to come and Southampton aren't the only team capable of playing that way.
The standards have gone up for sure but it's not every season a team gets 90+ points. United once won the league with 80 points 2010/11. When you're in the title race, it gets to a point where the runners are pushing each other on and it's down to who blinks first. We've been out of the title race for so and so early that we're just about scraping the 70 point mark. We've been doing what we needed to stay top 4 pushing ourselves for results when that place looks in jeopardy. If we'd have consistently ended the season in the 75-85 point range, I'd have no problem saying these oil rich clubs have truly gazumped us. Fact is, we haven't even won the FA Cup or League Cup in years. Their a factor but we haven't had our own house in order.Quote:
Originally Posted by Syn
We are on course for 86 points at the current rate. I doubt it will be enough.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
It will be if it represents a genuine starting point to a push next season and the season after and so on. But if we're swapping and always 4th attitude for an always third or always second alternative then it's all a bit pointless.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve French
Just been looking at the pattern for our 4th place spots and it says a lot. Ending the season on 65+ points used to be enough to qualify for 4th but the threshold has been pushed in recent years. In the seasons where Spurs have been hot on our tails, we’ve found that extra gear to get 70+ points to finish 4th. It goes back on what I’m saying about teams pushing each other when it comes to the title race.Quote:
Originally Posted by Syn
2009/10 – Spurs 70/Arsenal 75 Points
2011/12 – Spurs 69/Arsenal 70 Points
2012/13 – Spurs 72/Arsenal 73 Points
Spurs have been close to edging us out for 4th spot and statistically, points wise, they should have done enough on those three occasions but we’ve found a way to raise the bar. The points tally at the end doesn’t really matter to be honest. It’s just about being in the race and staying within reach. If for some crazy reason it took 80 points to qualify for the Champs League spot and it became the norm, I’m sure we’d do what’s necessary to get that spot. We certainly had our sights set on 4th for the past 8 years.
I remember Gary Neville saying he never projected anything about points, it was just about overhauling whoever was competing with them regardless.