Match Reaction vs Soton (away)

[The Emirates Gallactico]

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.

[Niall_Quinn]

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.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

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.

[Niall_Quinn]

And he is also aware of Bendtner

[IBK]

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.

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.

[Letters]

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.

Given that City's form since then has been P12 W11 D1 L0 it's hardly a huge capitulation.

[Fist of Lehmann]

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.

[Power n Glory]

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.

[Marc Overmars]

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.

This team is being built to contain.

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.

[Niall_Quinn]

The Ramsey and Walcott injuries are bloody unfortunate, just as both had stepped up their game.