Match Reaction: Arsenal 3 Zagreb 0

[IBK]

I do remember that. And maybe we did lose our heads but the first sending off was nonsense - meanwhile Costa was allowed to do whatever he liked.
Being down to 10 men at Stamford Bridge, for all their troubles this season, doesn't give us much chance.
Even the most rabid of the anti-Wenger brigade weren't blaming him for that one after the game.

I think this is a recurring theme with you. You tend to look at outside factors, I look at our team. As was said at the time, Our players knew what Costa is like. Koscielny dealt with him, Gabriel didn't. I don't blame the manager for this, but the fact is that we lost our heads, played into the Chavs' hands and lost the game. And shooting ourselves in the foot is an unwelcome, recurring theme for our team that undermines our effectiveness, and rightly leads to scepticism about our ability to be winners. That this tendency alternates with some breathtaking performances makes the frustration all the harder to take.

[IBK]

Another threshold. Another acid test that's suppose to tell us more. How many more now? I explained this after the Utd and Bayern game. Those games don't tell us more. Just that on some occasions we can put a hurting on a big team. But we'll then put in a woeful string of performances against weaker teams and look uninterested in a few weeks later. We beat City last season but put in a terrible performance against Spurs two weeks later. It's like they didn't know it was a NLD. Not too far from what happened this season.

We've had seasons where we're pepped up for the big teams but lose focus against the weaker teams. It happened a lot during the Cesc era. The season before Ozil arrived we were the only team to beat Bayern at home and was on one of those unbeaten runs in the league...the sort of sign your talking about now. We signed Ozil, lead the league for a while with Ozil and Ramsey leading the charge, both got injured and the title challenge faltered.

The signs you talk of are not valid. We've seen plenty of the same in previous seasons. Scalping one of the big teams and beating our chest, saying 'this proves ', but in the end it doesn't. We're back 4th and haven't taken advantage of our chances to go top of the league and extend that lead. Not saying we're in a an impossible situation but there isn't anything to point to that suggests we've vastly improved this season. No need to list your examples again either.

I couldn't agree more.

And the longer this pattern goes on - even with undoubtedly better signings at our disposal - the less reason there is to hope that we are ever going to step up under the current regime.

[Letters]

The signs you talk of are not valid.

We'll find out in May, I guess.

[Letters]

but the fact is that we lost our heads, played into the Chavs' hands and lost the game.

OK, if that's the way you saw it. Look back at the match thread and you'll find very few people saw it that way. The first sending off wasn't anyone 'losing their head', it was a flick of the boot at most, not even sure it connected, it was pure cheating by Costa and the ref - a fact backed up by the fact that Costa was subsequently banned and our player exonerated post match.

[Niall_Quinn]

Rubbish.

It's arguable we do it too often but 50% of the time.
That's just one of those 87% of statistics that's made up on the spot.

Eh?

How many games have we played this season?

How many can you say we have played with the commitment and intensity we saw on Tuesday?

How many games where the fans have observed we didn't turn up or didn't approach our potential?

How many games where the majority of play has been slooooooow and futile in the final third?

Name the 51% or more of games where you can say we put a decent game together that demonstrated the potential of this squad and the talent of the players in it. Games where in individual stood out from an otherwise rancid team performance don't count.

In fact make it 60% because if my suggestion is "rubbish" then you'll need a little distance.

Why has it become your job to defend Wenger against what everyone else sees as self evident? Yes, we're still in the title hunt. And if everyone around us keeps losing then we'll be in it for a while yet. Then again, Leicester are still in it, aren't they? What does that prove - that Leicester have a shot at winning the title? Do you think so?

Our job is to win, not pat ourselves on the back for being in contention because everyone around us lost. The expectations are rock bottom at this club. 4th place trophies, calendar year titles, most consecutive appearances in the CL, the Wigan Cup. The boys done well.

[Niall_Quinn]

I'm a realist. I don't expect us to win every game. But it is the exception rather than the rule to see us playing the kind of committed, effective football that we have seen this team can play - and the talent that we have should see us doing this more often.

Of course it's the exception, everyone bar you-know-who can see it. Switch things around so we played with a bit of passion more times than not and we'd have a much better record over the last 10 years and might have won something. But we have this guy in charge who admits he is not Jesus, but does tell us he has been sent for the benefit of mankind. An economics social worker, not a football manager.

[Letters]

Then again, Leicester are still in it, aren't they? What does that prove - that Leicester have a shot at winning the title? Do you think so.

I've been through this before, but no. Look at the games they've played so far.
They've done very well so far but they don't have the squad to sustain it and they've not played many of the big boys yet - well, they've played us and we beat them

In their next 8 games they have to play Manchester United, Chelsea, Everton , Liverpool, City and Spurs.
Let's see where they are after that.

[Kano]

We haven’t dropped to the level of our opponents, more that they’ve dropped to our usual level of performance so far in the league. The level in the Premier league has dropped season on season for the past 4/5 years, to the point where we may still scrape four teams in the knockout stages of the CL but three of them are relying on the last group games to qualify, all four of them may finish second and none of them have a hope of progressing deep into the competition.

So for that reason alone, we still have a chance of winning the league. I could list all my concerns over Wenger but I covered that at the start of the season. Now I'd rather just sit back at takes the games as they come, rather than drowning myself in pesimism about where we'll be at the end of the season. Otherwise it's just pointless turning on any game.

[Letters]

We haven’t dropped to the level of our opponents, more that they’ve dropped to our usual level of performance so far in the league. The level in the Premier league has dropped season on season for the past 4/5 years, to the point where we may still scrape four teams in the knockout stages of the CL but three of them are relying on the last group games to qualify, all four of them may finish second and none of them have a hope of progressing deep into the competition.

So for that reason alone, we still have a chance of winning the league. I could list all my concerns over Wenger but I covered that at the start of the season. Now I'd rather just sit back at takes the games as they come, rather than drowning myself in pesimism about where we'll be at the end of the season. Otherwise it's just pointless turning on any game.

I'd go along with that.

[Power n Glory]

We'll find out in May, I guess.

We will but that doesn't mean the signs you're referring to are useful. They're not signs of progress.