Match Reaction Norwich

[Letters]

Not really.

I don't see finishing in the top 4 the same as going for a trophy.

Oh. It's just that after the QPR game last year (our first loss after 7 straight league wins) You said

The pressure is on and we cant win

http://www.goonersweb.co.uk/forum/sh...?t=1320&page=4

And all we had then was the top 4 to play for.

[Letters]

i think there's two types of pressure. facing adversity is one, which we're pretty good at. then dealing with expectation of winning, which we're not so hot at. the latter has prevented us winning anything for a while.

There was a pretty clear expectation of us winning yesterday and you'd bet your bottom dollar had we slipped up everyone on here would have been saying we bottled it. Actually in the match thread which I went through earlier I'm pretty sure people were saying that at 1-0.

[Kano]

There was a pretty clear expectation of us winning yesterday and you'd bet your bottom dollar had we slipped up everyone on here would have been saying we bottled it. Actually in the match thread which I went through earlier I'm pretty sure people were saying that at 1-0.

come on be fair, if it wasn't for us being given something instead of actually doing it ourselves (the pen) we would've fucked it up. we were good for 7 minutes yesterday only after being hand the initiative rather than earning it.

what i said was not a case of 100% either way. but if you look back over the past 7/8 years, you'll see we fuck up when things are in our grasp. sure, fourth place is one thing but take into the account all the cup mistakes then the pattern emerges. we can't handle expectation in most cases, we turn into a bag of nerves. put us on the back foot however and we can usually respond. being the leader and dealing with that pressure is completely different to gritting your teeth and fighting back.

your example of last season is the perfect example. came back from nowhere. then when 5 points ahead with five games to go, we fell apart and only because of some goalkeeping howlers clung onto fourth.

[Cripps_orig]

Oh. It's just that after the QPR game last year (our first loss after 7 straight league wins) You said



http://www.goonersweb.co.uk/forum/sh...?t=1320&page=4

And all we had then was the top 4 to play for.

There's no post from me there.

Il take your word for it

[Letters]

come on be fair, if it wasn't for us being given something instead of actually doing it ourselves (the pen) we would've fucked it up. we were good for 7 minutes yesterday only after being hand the initiative rather than earning it.

what i said was not a case of 100% either way. but if you look back over the past 7/8 years, you'll see we fuck up when things are in our grasp. sure, fourth place is one thing but take into the account all the cup mistakes then the pattern emerges. we can't handle expectation in most cases, we turn into a bag of nerves. put us on the back foot however and we can usually respond. being the leader and dealing with that pressure is completely different to gritting your teeth and fighting back.

your example of last season is the perfect example. came back from nowhere. then when 5 points ahead with five games to go, we fell apart and only because of some goalkeeping howlers clung onto fourth.

To be fair we should have had a penalty much earlier than we got one and the Norwich goal was from a free kick which shouldn't have been one. Things didn't exactly go for us till near the end although we didn't play well until we went 1-0 down.

I agree with a lot of what you've said about the way we handle pressure, or fail to, but some people's definition of a high pressure game seems to be entirely determined by whether we win or not. If we do it's all "there was no pressure on it, we're only going for a top 4 spot". If we slip up it's "typical Arsenal, can't handle the pressure when there's a chance to go top 4".

The run in will be interesting because we're now in a position where it's ours to lose which hasn't been the case all season.

[Dennis Bendtner]

if we were to base the end of the season on last years results against the same teams it would be:

Chelsea 69
Tottenham 68 (assuming they beat southampton)
Arsenal 65

not exactly a solid science but worth noting nonetheless.


must say i'm surprised we've managed to pull this sort of form together when we haven't done all season. at least it has finally become interesting. we will drop points sooner rather than later, that is going to happen but we can't finish the season as we did last time, otherwise it will be game over for the cl.

Nine points from the final six games last season. It was a stumbling drunk hobble to the line after a run of form not dissimilar to the one we are on now.

Regardless, games like yesterday are proof of the pitfalls of the 'easier run-in' rhetoric which annoys me every time I hear it. I remember in 2010 there was talk looking at our last ten games or so claiming we'd piss the league title. Clearly not. Every game as it comes and all that. But not accounting for who we are actually playing, four wins has to be the target.

[Letters]

There's no post from me there.

4 of the last 5 posts on that page are from you. The first of those 5 is the one I was quoting.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

4 of the last 5 posts on that page are from you. The first of those 5 is the one I was quoting.

Not if you have a different number of posts per page

[Letters]

Not if you have a different number of posts per page

No. I guess not. But the post, and the point, remain.

[Cripps_orig]

4 of the last 5 posts on that page are from you. The first of those 5 is the one I was quoting.

You linked the wrong page. Found it anyway.

Not sure who Spuds were playing that week but the fact our top 4 rivals weren't playing this week meant the pressure was off and bar the last 7 minutes, we were a bit shit