Match Reaction vs Soton (away)

[Özim]

Key injuries, something our closest opponents don't have to deal with.

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.

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.

[Ernesto]

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.

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)

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.

[Niall_Quinn]

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.

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.

[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.