Match Reaction: Arsenal 3 Zagreb 0

[Letters]

Its not a may be, it is a definite we do it too often. If we didnt, we'd have at least challenged for the PL come the end of the season in the last 10 years.

I'm not sure that's valid, for much of the last 10 years we've not had the resources to challenge the big boys properly. It's only in the last couple of years we've had the new financial muscle, the new level of signings have made a clear difference. We should have challenged last year, we got off to an awful start which gave us no chance. This year we've not done that, we're in touch and I think we've got a chance. The concern for me is not the mentality - I've highlighted endlessly the hopeful signs I've seen about that - it's the over-reliance on a couple of key players and the perennial injury problems.

[Power n Glory]

Is that really different from any other season? The fact that we’re so dependent on a few key players to perform suggests there is a mentality a problem. Far too many of these players switch off. I won’t even start with the injury problems. This is a very boring conversation and I think people are just sick of the merry go round…hence the lack of comments. Tired of seeing the team play great for a few games as if the light has finally switched on to then see them fall back into old habits. It’s why I can’t get too excited with the wins against the bigger clubs. After the Bayern and Utd games, I knew we’d have this sort of patch where we look like a completely different team. It’s tiring.

[Letters]

What most Gooners are frustrated by is that instead of exploiting this situation, our inconsistency has seen us sink to the level of the competition. Implosions against West Ham; the Chavs and West Brom have seen us drop avoidable points, and flat performances against Liverpool and Spurs - 2 games that you would have expected our players to be very motivated for - have caused disappointment.

The Chavs?
Behave...
It was 0-0 till Mike Dean took charge. I'm not having that.
The other two, fine - but these things happen, they happen to every team in every season. That's football.

I didn't see the Liverpool game although from what I remember we had a perfectly good Ramsey goal chalked off for offside that evening.
The Spurs game...well I did see that one and like it or not Spurs are irritatingly good this season. They've only lost once in the league this season and you can see why. There was a perception that they hammered us, I don't agree. We had 55% possession, had as many on target chances as them. We could have lost it but we could have won it too, it was a good derby game which ebbed and flowed, I don't have too many complaints about our performance that day.
I can't agree that our good performances are the exception rather than the norm. As for what our reasonable expectations are, I expect us to be competing for the biggest prizes. So far we're in the title race, so for now I'm reasonably content. If we continue to have too many "West Broms" then I'll agree that's not good enough, while we're there or thereabouts though I'll believe we have a chance of winning the title. I don't expect us to sweep all before us but I do expect us to compete, we didn't last year but the FA Cup retention mitigated that somewhat, this year there are no excuses.

[Letters]

Is that really different from any other season?

Well, we'll find out in May. I've endlessly gone over some of the hopeful signs I see but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
So long as we're in the mix I'll believe we have a chance.

[IBK]

I'm not sure that's valid, for much of the last 10 years we've not had the resources to challenge the big boys properly. It's only in the last couple of years we've had the new financial muscle, the new level of signings have made a clear difference. We should have challenged last year, we got off to an awful start which gave us no chance. This year we've not done that, we're in touch and I think we've got a chance. The concern for me is not the mentality - I've highlighted endlessly the hopeful signs I've seen about that - it's the over-reliance on a couple of key players and the perennial injury problems.

I'm not sure that's valid, for much of the last 10 years we've not had the resources to challenge the big boys properly. It's only in the last couple of years we've had the new financial muscle, the new level of signings have made a clear difference. We should have challenged last year, we got off to an awful start which gave us no chance. This year we've not done that, we're in touch and I think we've got a chance. The concern for me is not the mentality - I've highlighted endlessly the hopeful signs I've seen about that - it's the over-reliance on a couple of key players and the perennial injury problems.

You see - that statement (highlighted) is actually up for debate as matters stand. There is no doubt about the value of Sanchez; Ozil and now Cech to the team, but if you look at most of our past 6 seasons, we were topping the league, or nearly topping the league at some point during the season, or putting significant winning runs together without these players. We are undoubtedly reliant on them at present (overly so, in fact), but in terms of our past performances, it is arguable certainly that there should have been more of a step change with our ability to spend the kind of money that have brought our star players to the club.

In Europe - even with our stellar signings, we have if anything gone backwards this season, compared to other seasons.

I guess the real issue is that our new level of signings is at present more covering for our appalling injury situation than driving the club forward. We are back to the old 'step change' debate.Time will tell, of course but the current signs in terms of squad depth are not exactly cause for optimism.

Its a shame, IMO, because I feel that Wenger's famous 'handbrake' is blunting the effect of our new found competitiveness in the transfer market. Glass half empty - maybe - but we have had our hopes dashed too many times to feel anything other than skeptical about our chances going forwards.

[IBK]

The Chavs?
Behave...
It was 0-0 till Mike Dean took charge. I'm not having that.
The other two, fine - but these things happen, they happen to every team in every season. That's football.

I didn't see the Liverpool game although from what I remember we had a perfectly good Ramsey goal chalked off for offside that evening.
The Spurs game...well I did see that one and like it or not Spurs are irritatingly good this season. They've only lost once in the league this season and you can see why. There was a perception that they hammered us, I don't agree. We had 55% possession, had as many on target chances as them. We could have lost it but we could have won it too, it was a good derby game which ebbed and flowed, I don't have too many complaints about our performance that day.
I can't agree that our good performances are the exception rather than the norm. As for what our reasonable expectations are, I expect us to be competing for the biggest prizes. So far we're in the title race, so for now I'm reasonably content. If we continue to have too many "West Broms" then I'll agree that's not good enough, while we're there or thereabouts though I'll believe we have a chance of winning the title. I don't expect us to sweep all before us but I do expect us to compete, we didn't last year but the FA Cup retention mitigated that somewhat, this year there are no excuses.

We self-destructed against the Chavs. Do you not remember that we finished with 9 men? I have never been a fan of blaming the ref for results. Against both the Chavs Sp*rs and Liverpool if we had played at 80% of our level against Manure or Bayern at home we would have taken all 3 points. We remain vulnerable to teams playing a committed, pressing, game.

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.

[Power n Glory]

Well, we'll find out in May. I've endlessly gone over some of the hopeful signs I see but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
So long as we're in the mix I'll believe we have a chance.

I believe we have a chance but it’s not because I think we’re a lot stronger than what we’ve been before or learned from past mistakes. We’re in the mix because other teams haven’t been performing. Not a far stretch from the season Fergie finally stepped down from Utd and we were league leaders. You didn’t believe we had a chance of winning the league that year so why is it that your optimistic for this season?

[Letters]

I believe we have a chance but it’s not because I think we’re a lot stronger than what we’ve been before or learned from past mistakes. We’re in the mix because other teams haven’t been performing. Not a far stretch from the season Fergie finally stepped down from Utd and we were league leaders. You didn’t believe we had a chance of winning the league that year so why is it that your optimistic for this season?

I've explained endlessly why, the signs of hope I see. Some of the results we're getting, we wouldn't have got those a few years ago.
As I've said, the next few games and particularly the City one will tell us more.

[Letters]

We self-destructed against the Chavs. Do you not remember that we finished with 9 men?

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.

[Power n Glory]

I've explained endlessly why, the signs of hope I see. Some of the results we're getting, we wouldn't have got those a few years ago.
As I've said, the next few games and particularly the City one will tell us more.

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.