Match reaction: Everton 2-1 Arsenal

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

City will say a lot about where things are going head potentially. But the other question is when could a defeat of been accepted? If we'd of not lost yesterday and had done at City, familiar accusations would be thrown around. If we had not lost yesterday or at City, which would mean 16 undefeated, but then lose against West Brom, Palace or Bournemouth, would that have been acceptable? At some point we were going to lose again, because everyone does eventually and no team in this league is good enough to do so only once in a league season. One defeat in 15 games doesn't tell us about this team. The next 1-3 games will do that I think.

The problem isn't that we lost, it's that we seem to always lose to the same kind of teams managed by people who find Wenger's Arsenal easy to play against

Mark Hughes, Tony Pulis, Jose Mourinho, Ronald Koeman, Mauricio Pochettino they all have our number.

If we win at any of the Hawthorns, the Britannia and White Hart Lane this season i'd be massively surprised

If we beat Everton or United when we play them at home, i'd be doubly surprised.

[Kano]

Going by the vast majority of the comments I've seen knocking about, losing seems to be the problem full stop.

[Letters]

I do wonder sometimes if your memory gets wiped at the end of each season.

No, it doesn't. But if you're so certain that things will turn out the same then stop watching. Why bother if you know the outcome? It's only going to end in disappointment so just go and do something more fulfilling.
Of course there are repeated failings, there are patterns but why is it so sneered at on here to live in hope, to think that there's a chance that new players coming in could change things?
In any season you get results like this. Any season. It's our first (league) loss since the opening day so I'm not going to wet my pants, the question now is how will we react? Will we react?
I fear the worst but hope for the best otherwise, to return to my original point, why bother following it at all?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Going by the vast majority of the comments I've seen knocking about, losing seems to be the problem full stop.

Well I can only speak for myself

Of course losing is a problem there is no sense in supporting a team if you aren't cross when it loses, but of course also it's unavoidable

But this is why I'm cross at this defeat

[Kano]

Well I can only speak for myself

Of course losing is a problem there is no sense in supporting a team if you aren't cross when it loses, but of course also it's unavoidable

But this is why I'm cross at this defeat

You mean because we always lost against these teams?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

No, it doesn't. But if you're so certain that things will turn out the same then stop watching. Why bother if you know the outcome? It's only going to end in disappointment so just go and do something more fulfilling.
Of course there are repeated failings, there are patterns but why is it so sneered at on here to live in hope, to think that there's a chance that new players coming in could change things?
In any season you get results like this. Any season. It's our first (league) loss since the opening day so I'm not going to wet my pants, the question now is how will we react? Will we react?
I fear the worst but hope for the best otherwise, to return to my original point, why bother following it at all?

Again with your rather petulent response you've missed the point, there is not a single person who doesn't hope for the best. I didn't go into last night's game thinking "well it's going to be the same as always", I went into it thinking "no if's ands or buts we have to win". But there is just no sense in denying the reality when it's staring you in the face....this is the type of game we will probably lose (or fail to win) as long as Wenger is manager.

When's the last time we beat Mark Hughes managed side away from home? - January 2007!

When's the last time we beat Tony Pulis managed side away from home? - February 2010 (and they spent the last half hour down to ten men!)

When's the last time we beat a Ronald Koeman managed side away from home? - we never have!

I support this team therefore there is no choice but to hope for the best, but i'm not going to pretend there is no coincidence when the same things happen again and again.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

You mean because we always lost against these teams?

Yes because there is a familiarity in failure to get one over the same managers again and again.

[Goonermerree]

We had them on the ropes for 20 mins, scored a fortuitous goal, then reverted to tippy tappy. We only really picked up the pace when were losing. That is why we lost and that is why a lot of fans are unhappy about the defeat. Go down fighting and you can ask for no more, go down without pressing and challenging and it's frustrating. We were walking around their box at one point just picking out passes, sideways backwards, this way that way. You could see Everton grow in confidence, keep it there all day long Arsenal.

Then they have a few counters and have narrow misses and they equalise. In the second half they were playing like the team who could go top, not us. We had the crowd quiet, but they came into it as well. Yes it looked like a pen, yes it might not have been a corner, but we shouldn't have been in that position by then. It really does feel like same old same old.

[Kano]

Yes because there is a familiarity in failure to get one over the same managers again and again.

Depends how you want to interpret 'got his number' really. There are a stack of draws in these games which doesn't tell me that these managers have a clear advantage. And if they did, they would be able to replicate it quite regularly at our place too, which they haven't. So I don't see what you do.

[Letters]

I support this team therefore there is no choice but to hope for the best, but i'm not going to pretend there is no coincidence when the same things happen again and again.

I'm not arguing with that.
My point was, and remains, that I'm not sure what to make of this result. Yes, I'm disappointed but in any season you will get results like this. It seems we were a bit unlucky to lose, right at the end we had the ball cleared off the line twice before Everton nearly broke away and scored a 3rd. And earlier Ozil missed a sitter. Fine lines in football sometimes. The important thing is how we react. Is this going to be the start of one of our trademark slumps or are they made of sterner stuff this year? We'll see.
And there are some people who don't hope for the best in the sense that they "know" we're going to fail (one of the usual suspects mentioning the "fourth place trophy" even though we haven't "won" that for 3 years.
I don't know why they bother watching.