Match Reaction vs Burnley (home).

[Niall_Quinn]

The only team we're failing to compete with right now is Chelsea who, to be fair, have gone pretty mental. If you win 18 out of 22 games then you deserve to be top.
The Invincibles wouldn't be top at this stage if there was a team doing what Chelsea are doing so far this year (although they'd be close, they had 52 points after 22 games).
The next 2 games are key. Chelsea have Liverpool away while we have Watford at home. Chelsea could well drop points and assuming we don't cock that up (I know, but bear with me) we could go there knowing that a win might put us, say 3 points behind them. I have a feeling we'll balls it up but we can live in hope a little longer...can't we?

Oh yes they would, having won all their matches so far. The chavs are a pale and pathetic shadow of the teams the Invincibles had to face, such as the chavs back then, Utd and all the way down to cloggers like Bolton who weren't constrained by the rule changes that have made it harder for teams like that to kick, elbow and punch their way to a result.

Like last season, this is a dogshit league with not a single decent team in it. None of our top teams stand the faintest chance of winning the CL. It's embarrassing how far this league is behind now in terms of anything bar money and hype.

[fakeyank]

Nope. No-one went mental last year. After 22 games we were top

I am not saying 22 games per se. I am talking around this time (Jan-March) pretty much every season.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I don't have an issue with Chelsea being top ahead of us, i have an issue with them being eight points clear

Everton and City were tough fixtures but we should have found a way to have taken something from one of those games

Bournemouth game was an absolute disgrace, a game that we should have won easily

The Middlesborough game in October when we were on a good run of form and no excuses just failed totally to turn up.

For me that's at least five points in those four games we could and should have picked up

[Niall_Quinn]

Yeah I honestly thought for once he had decided to stick with Sanchez up front, with Welbeck back especially I think this approach would pay dividends.

I think actually if anything this is about Wengers lack of assertiveness, he's picked Giroud because he's scoring goals and it's him agonising over dropping him and preferring to shoe horn him into the side the way he does with Ramsey

Giroud has scored 7 fewer than Alexis, granted in fewer appearances but the point is we aren't sacrificing goals by leaving Giroud on the bench. We have the league's top scorer who'll be up there. Wenger likes Giroud because he's a boring, static lump that plays with his back to goal so he's available for the tippy tappy shite we're always playing. Alexis roams, Wenger would see that as unauthorised creativity I guess. He's such a fucking terrible manager. Can you think of any other manager who would relegate the league's top scorer and replace him with Giroud? I swear he does it on purpose to piss off the fans.

[Niall_Quinn]

After leading a lead slip late against liverpool and then only managing to grind out a draw against stoke. Now a draw at stoke isn't in of itself terrible and Leicester had only drawn with Villa the previous day.

However I think letting that 3-2 lead go in the 90th minute was part of a psychological unravelling.

We won on January 2nd 1-0 at home to Newcastle (a game we could have very easily lost) and didn't win again in the league until 7th February away at Bournemouth.

In fact between the beginning of the year and March 5th we won only three times from nine league games.

No, no, no. If you recall, that was a very decent point against Liverpool. IIRC, the next two games were vital back then also. And then the two after that, and then the two after that as we watched Leicester fucking City sail past us and over the title horizon. This season is just as bad in many ways. It's a season begging for one club to emerge from the shit mound and start playing some decent football and exerting a bit of dominance. The chavs are top now because everyone else is absolute shit, ourselves included of course. Can you imagine an Arsenal, Utd, chav or even gypo team from a few years back and how they'd carve the current chavs up? We should be a lot closer if not ahead. We easily have the players to match theirs. But Conte against yer man? The gap there is horrendous and will once again be unbridgeable.

[selassie]

I am not saying 22 games per se. I am talking around this time (Jan-March) pretty much every season.

Our next four away games in the League are Chelsea, Southampton, Liverpool & West Brom. We'll be lucky to come out of that with anything more than 4 points. You can quote me on this.

[selassie]

I don't have an issue with Chelsea being top ahead of us, i have an issue with them being eight points clear

Everton and City were tough fixtures but we should have found a way to have taken something from one of those games

Bournemouth game was an absolute disgrace, a game that we should have won easily

The Middlesborough game in October when we were on a good run of form and no excuses just failed totally to turn up.

For me that's at least five points in those four games we could and should have picked up

Yep, I agree with all of this.

[fakeyank]

Our next four away games in the League are Chelsea, Southampton, Liverpool & West Brom. We'll be lucky to come out of that with anything more than 4 points. You can quote me on this.

Not surprised really. Its our annual 'fuck up' time anyway.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Do you know what, Maccy....I have been through ups and downs, with and without Wenger, and supported this team through everything....even to the point where you're doing it, despite absolutely zero mutual respect or feeling (and yes, you did get that back from the team in spades. They fucking cared....

The way Dostoy puts it, is a bit blunt, but I know what he means.

I despise this "well don't support them" attitude, when you're 30 years in.

The hate, is directed at the people who don't have Arsenal in their blood. The people who don't know what it is to be a gooner. The people who have made this club part of the extortion racket that is modern football.

Tell me really, how can you be Arsenal, when the real Arsenal doesn't exist anymore, regardless of whether sky say they do or not?

I feel the same.

[Niall_Quinn]

There are some good points about the modern game I suppose:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/spo...-new-home.html