The reason we'll finish 3rd is that the two teams we're trying to compete with have the infinite money cheat on.
We're top of the league, we've won our last 7 games, the first set back and everyone wets themselves.
Tsk.
Quote Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory View Post
That's untrue on tonight's evidence. Team selection was wrong and over the past month or so we've tried to get away with turning up to play for 5 minutes then going back to sleep. We did that tonight but and we've finally been punished. It's been coming and it's down to us. We can't blame City and Chelsea for today. That's a far stretch and a cop out.
I've given myself time to think about this, and while I don't want to be knee jerk, I'm afraid that last night summarises in many ways why we should be much more circumspect about our so-called 'progress' than some Gooners are.

I could only listen to the match (switching between radio shows) - but by all accounts, the first half was truly, truly awful from us. How can a team supposedly full of confidence, playing a fixture that lets face it was an essential 3 points if we were to maintain any real pretence of challenging for the title (given our 2 horrendous coming runs) - come out playing like that?

For me, that is totally down to the manager. It started on Monday, when his near-hysterical reaction to Mourinho's taunting showed us a brittle manager who has let Maureen get under his skin. It really was not the best rallying cry for his players. And the negativity continued with his team selection last night. Bringing a non-match fit Arteta in alongside Flamini in midfield was a very poor selection - and one that has made the team look unbalanced almost whenever its been tried this season. It meant that the initiative was handed on a plate to Southampton, and was simply not, IMHO how league leaders should have approached this tie.

The truth is that while Steve Bould has clearly been allowed to tighten us up at the back, we have not looked truly threatening going forwards for a while now. Wenger might choose to praise his team's 'resilience' to keep going in adversity, but as PNG says - we have looked complacent and lacking in focus for a few games now - and its an age old Arsenal problem.

Letters chooses to look at the competition to explain why we won't win the league. Well its that opposition that we have to beat to win things - and compare and contrast them with us. Both Citeh and the Chavs have had games where they have let themselves down this season, but (the City/Watford FA Cup tie apart) - the trend is that both teams have improved as their new managers have found their right balance of players. Wenger's team has not improved - despite his vastly greater longevity and experience with his players.

Even when we were 7 points clear a couple of months ago - most pundits and bookies put us 3rd favourites for the league, pointing out that we had had a relatively easy first half to the season. Letters can argue that this is because of Chelsea's and Citeh's resources - but that is not the whole reason. Manure were way out-resourced by the same teams last season but romped the league. The reason why we are not considered proper title rivals by most is that we have a horrible history of crumbling under pressure. In 2008, we were 5 points clear at the top of the league in February, but imploded. For more seasons than I wish to remember, we have been in with a theoretical chance of 3 or 4 trophies, only to crash out of everything in a matter of weeks.

This season, we have lost to Manure during their most inept period; failed to beat a developing Chavs team at home; been spanked by Citeh and dropped points against the likes of Everton at home and now Southampton away. Lets not forget also that we could't secure a draw against Napoli that would have seen us top our CL group - and instead came close to going out of a group that we had led from the outset.

I am afraid that nothing I have seen from us this season suggests that we will not implode again during our upcoming 'crunch' periods. The fact that its so likely to be 'same old' 'same old' Arsenal is what makes results like last night's depressing - not knee-jerkiness.