Match Reaction Arsenal 0-1 Swansea

[Niall_Quinn]

2nd would have been good, 4th would be disappointing. I could live with 3rd. And what does 3rd mean? It's better than last season but points wise we'll be worse off. I think we can all agree this season hasn't shown great progress but there have been some good signs too.

Had we won we'd have been 11 points behind Chelsea. I don't think Mourinho would have been looking at us too closely. We have had plenty of momentum during this run but sometimes there are fine lines in games and it goes the wrong way. Why did that game 'really matter' and the Hull game (in which we were outstanding) didn't? Your definition of a game which 'really matters' seems to be one in which we slip up and the games where we don't are ignored. Fact is all games matter and we've been winning more than our fair share of late. You predicted a win in the match thread, now you're claiming you had foresight on us slipping up.

I gave 2-0 Ozil hattrick as a prediction, I think. In some ways that was said tongue in cheek. That said, I fully expected to win and find it completely unacceptable we didn't. On the one hand we hear how Maureen can always find a way to get the result, on the other we hear how results like last night's can happen to any club. Contradiction. When it matters Maureen gets the result. When it matters Wenger doesn't. True story.

You can go back and check the threads. I said if Wenger holds true to form then he'll take his foot off the pedal and settle for qualification. It would be a stretch to claim that based on a single season. But 8 seasons? There's a pattern there and it's easy enough to see.

I also said every game in the run-in is crucial with the next game becoming more important than the last. True. The Hull game was super important and we did what we had to do. No problems there. We fucked it last night in an even more important game. So big problem. Pattern repeated. Run of wins wasted. Nothing achieved.

The pattern, repeating. Yes there are some clear positives. The easing of the financial constraints, the quality signings, the injury problems clearing up. So you'd think Wenger could make a better fist of it given these fresh positives. But he hasn't and he can't.

[Power n Glory]

Well, it's got us to the Cup Final and propelled us from 7th (I think) to 2nd. We've let that slip now but after 9 wins out of 10 I think it's a little churlish to complain too much.

Our points tally was always going to be hit by our awful start - 4 wins in 12 was nowhere near good enough and put me firmly in the "Wenger Out" camp. Since then there have been reasons for optimism though which has made me reconsider.
If we win the Cup and finish 3rd, or even 4th, then I guess you can't say that's progress since last season but over a longer period there has been progress. The new level of signings we're able to make have made a difference. We finally have a squad that I believe can compete. I'm not sure if that's the right point to change manager although the counter-argument is that if you don't think Wenger can push us on any further then we need to find someone who can. The question is who. As I've said, Mourinho would but I wouldn't want him near the place even though I think he'd win us the league.

We have this conversation every year! Forget progress at Arsenal and with Wenger. Where is the progress on GW? Someone has to learn from this. I don’t know why you can’t comprehend the arguments about Wenger’s management style that’s the problem. Even with financial circumstances changing, we have the same sort of problems. Or maybe I need to learn and just stop talking to a brick wall. Every year we arrive at the same results, same conclusion, same conversation.

[Letters]

I gave 2-0 Ozil hattrick as a prediction, I think. In some ways that was said tongue in cheek. That said, I fully expected to win and find it completely unacceptable we didn't. On the one hand we hear how Maureen can always find a way to get the result, on the other we hear how results like last night's can happen to any club. Contradiction. When it matters Maureen gets the result. When it matters Wenger doesn't. True story.

You can go back and check the threads. I said if Wenger holds true to form then he'll take his foot off the pedal and settle for qualification. It would be a stretch to claim that based on a single season. But 8 seasons? There's a pattern there and it's easy enough to see.

I also said every game in the run-in is crucial with the next game becoming more important than the last. True. The Hull game was super important and we did what we had to do. No problems there. We fucked it last night in an even more important game. So big problem. Pattern repeated. Run of wins wasted. Nothing achieved.

The pattern, repeating. Yes there are some clear positives. The easing of the financial constraints, the quality signings, the injury problems clearing up. So you'd think Wenger could make a better fist of it given these fresh positives. But he hasn't and he can't.

I think you know what I meant by 'always'. Obviously not always always, Chelsea have had their bad results this season too - most notably in the FA Cup of course but they've lost two silly games in the league, dropped other silly points too, and went out of the CL when they failed to beat PSG despite cheating to get one of their players sent off. So yes, it does happen to all teams but Mourinho is a better manager than Wenger so it happens more rarely to them. Even then in our game with them we had a good chance right at the end, on another day we score and beat them. They had a bit of luck that day.

Your definition of it mattering seems to be entirely based on one which we slip up in. All games matter. Some more than others but we've won plenty of games which matter this year. If you keep flipping a coin it's going to come up tails sooner or later (not that football results are random, but there is always an element of chance). If you keep saying it's going to be tails and it keeps coming up heads then you can't really say "Ha! See? Told you!" when it finally comes up tails. The fact we're now certain of a top 4 finish may be relevant to last night's result but there is a natural easing off - Chelsea drew against a pretty poor Liverpool side after they'd already sewn up the title. And maybe it isn't relevant, by all accounts we were OK last night, in the 2nd half at least, did more than enough to win it but didn't have our shooting boots on. You get days like that.

IMO Mourinho's the only manager who would be certain to push us on so if that's all you care about then let's get him. Would you want that? I bloody wouldn't. I want success but not at any price. There may be other managers out there who would do a better job but there aren't many. And some of the managers mentioned on here after flash in the pan successes have not gone on to do anything which inspire me with confidence.

[Niall_Quinn]

We have this conversation every year! Forget progress at Arsenal and with Wenger. Where is the progress on GW? Someone has to learn from this. I don’t know why you can’t comprehend the arguments about Wenger’s management style that’s the problem. Even with financial circumstances changing, we have the same sort of problems. Or maybe I need to learn and just stop talking to a brick wall. Every year we arrive at the same results, same conclusion, same conversation.

Took me a long time to see the obvious, glorious memories of what we did in Wenger's early period, the football we played, the fact he's been loyal to Arsenal, the fact he's decent bloke unlike that shit Maureen, the financial constraints he worked under. It's was easy to make excuses for him but a decade is fair play. Time's up.

Everyone will take their own time to see it. Some twigged right after the 2005 cup final, I suppose. Others will realise some 20 years after he's left the club. But it's not just football is it? We just had that election. The majority haven't copped-on to that lark, the same sort of blindness that afflicts those who scrabble desperately for excuses for Wenger. We all have our blind spots, the stuff we just don't want to see.

Wenger for Chancellor! Win-win. We get a proper manager in and the country gets somebody who can add and subtract.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I don't know, anyone even partly responsible for Bendtner being on 52k a week, Chamakh on 70k a week, Diaby on 60k, Denilson on 45k etc shouldn't be trusted with being the treasurer for the local church benevolent fund let alone the country's finances.
The sad thing is despite that, he'd probably do a better job than Osbourne and Darling before him (certainly borrow less)

[Niall_Quinn]

I think you know what I meant by 'always'. Obviously not always always, Chelsea have had their bad results this season too - most notably in the FA Cup of course but they've lost two silly games in the league, dropped other silly points too, and went out of the CL when they failed to beat PSG despite cheating to get one of their players sent off. So yes, it does happen to all teams but Mourinho is a better manager than Wenger so it happens more rarely to them. Even then in our game with them we had a good chance right at the end, on another day we score and beat them. They had a bit of luck that day.

Your definition of it mattering seems to be entirely based on one which we slip up in. All games matter. Some more than others but we've won plenty of games which matter this year. If you keep flipping a coin it's going to come up tails sooner or later (not that football results are random, but there is always an element of chance). If you keep saying it's going to be tails and it keeps coming up heads then you can't really say "Ha! See? Told you!" when it finally comes up tails. The fact we're now certain of a top 4 finish may be relevant to last night's result but there is a natural easing off - Chelsea drew against a pretty poor Liverpool side after they'd already sewn up the title. And maybe it isn't relevant, by all accounts we were OK last night, in the 2nd half at least, did more than enough to win it but didn't have our shooting boots on. You get days like that.

IMO Mourinho's the only manager who would be certain to push us on so if that's all you care about then let's get him. Would you want that? I bloody wouldn't. I want success but not at any price. There may be other managers out there who would do a better job but there aren't many. And some of the managers mentioned on here after flash in the pan successes have not gone on to do anything which inspire me with confidence.

Basically...

What?

This is my fault now? Well fuck me then! Me out!

There were fans (not highly paid managers with 3 decades of experience, just fans) on the match thread last night who could easily spot the problems with the tactics, could easily predict what Wenger would (or more correctly wouldn't) do in response, predicted how he'd bollocks up the subs, knew in advance the excuses he'd make after the game.

I'm guessing either Gary Monk secretly reads GW or else he easily figured out the old fella too.

This was a home game against an unambitious Swansea team, a game we had to take 3 points from to keep the heat on the gypos and push on to a top 2 finish for the first time in 10 years. This is what competing at the top is all about, winning these games, winning when your opposition is winning, not being the first to crack, eating up the pressure and getting the result.

Moderate opposition, no injuries, fully rested, 2nd place in our own hands. There's no excuses here - especially not the old "one of those games" excuses. Come on FFS!

Enough.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Sigh ...... hard to get too worked up about what will probably be a meaningless game in the end (2nd or 3rd is still on) especially in the kind of smash-and-grab manner it happened.

On balance of play we did deserve to win, however we didn't.

Could we have done better? Yes of course. We lack urgency in the first and weren't clinical in the second half and they scored with their only semi decent chance. Even in some of the games we've won at a canter recently, I've been a bit worried about our lack of ruthlessness up front and it bit us on the arse yesterday. It's something that we need to work on. God knows how we didn't put away some of those chances.

These things happen from time to time though but like the Man Utd game at home, at the very least you shouldn't lose these games. Ospina probably should have saved it and the defence should done better in the first place.

At the very least I hope it does force Wenger's hand to get a world class keeper in this summer. A DDG or Courtois probably would have kept it out, it was difficult but not impossible.

More saddened about Wenger's post match comments if he genuinely believes them (I suspect he's just saying that for the cameras/mind games). Swansea set up perfectly today and it's the very same way I would want to see us set up against a fellow top four team away from home. They made it difficult as hell for us to penetrate them. Full kudos to them and their fans, though their time wasting from early on was irritating.

[Niall_Quinn]

I don't know, anyone even partly responsible for Bendtner being on 52k a week, Chamakh on 70k a week, Diaby on 60k, Denilson on 45k etc shouldn't be trusted with being the treasurer for the local church benevolent fund let alone the country's finances.
The sad thing is despite that, he'd probably do a better job than Osbourne and Darling before him (certainly borrow less)

Nik is the best footballer on the planet, so we got him cheap. Chakma was a freebie and we got shot fast, so not much harm done. Diaby is pretty good value for such a major medical research project and the benefits our findings will have for all of mankind.

Denilson, good point.

[Bumble]

We have won 48 out of 54 points against the bottom 10 sides with 2 games to play yet only 22 out 51 against the top half with one to play.

[Letters]

Sigh ...... hard to get too worked up about what will probably be a meaningless game in the end (2nd or 3rd is still on) especially in the kind of smash-and-grab manner it happened.

You would have thought so, but apparently not.