This is the point really, we could have won this game. This is why I don't buy into the doom mongering that everything at Arsenal is crap. We keep making stupid mistakes, that I admit is clear to see and until we remedy that, we look likely to keep throwing points away.
I agree Piskie - we could have won that game. We turned round a poor 20 mins or whatever it was. We got back in - we looked on top, we were capable of winning it. The feeling was that Oxo and RVP were the means to do it. We just are not mentally able to go the extra mile - we are not winners. Why have we a loser mentality?
If he was trying to shut the crowd up he would probably put his fingers to his lips of clap Arshavin or something. What RvP did was shout 'Nooooo' just after he saw the substitution, which seems pretty obvious that he was unhappy about it. If you are really trying to say any differently then you will have no credibility.
But you could argue Wigan are bottom of the league just because they keep on making stupid mistakes. Is the inability of anyone but RvP to score a mistake? Or the collective unwillingness to do defensive work? We are lacking in quality as well as mentality.
I don't think the analogy really stands the test of scrutiny. Wigan are bottom because they don't have the same quality. Arsenal are struggling because they are making mistakes that they shouldn't be at their level.
I've learned from many years watching Spurs that players who 'keep making stupid mistakes' are just bad players. As for your long injury list - possibly but surely only Sagna, Wilshire and Gervinho would have improved that team and that would have probably meant leaving out Chamberlain and Rosicky who both did fine. Utd were without Fletcher, Cleverly, Young, Ferdinand and Vidic, and Jones went off after a few minutes so even harder hit?
It's as frustrating as hell mate, to watch us come so close and simply throw it away again and again. I think we're a confidence team, when we're winning, our performances and work rate are spot on, our football is as good as any team in the world and we go on long unbeaten runs. When we lose by making a stupid mistake, it totally zaps our confidence and we can't seem to shake it off, we carry that into subsequent game and we play nervously and with fear and the mistakes look more likely to happen again, it's a viscous circle that we badly need to sort out, because we are not that far off and yet we seem to be our own worst enemies. We should have taken at least seven points from the last three games, given the position we were in in those games. Instead we've come away with none. Not because the opposition have been better than us or outplayed us, but because of our own ability to hit the self destruct button.
I mean in terms of collective effort. People blame Arshavin for the goal against Utd, but it was Vermaelen's fault for being out of position, yet he is usually a solid performer for us.
PISKIE - we are not good enough, the standard of football we play has massively deteriorated, we are no longer effective and do not have the players necessary to be at the level we should be at. This is the worst Wenger team since he joined us. We have a weak loser mentality because these are the players Wenger buys, frail, weak, insipid. We buy kids who rarely demonstrate a level that says "play me week in week out". The young players we have had in the past that have demonstrated a quality we could use were, Anelka, Fabregas, Wilshire, Cole. These are kids that played and you immediately knew they would fit. When SAF brought through the Beckham era of players you could see they would fit, such was their level. If the players need time to develop loan them out to get their development, do not play them in the Arsenal bloody first team. We have missed out on good players because Wenger does not want to restrict the kids development, most of whom are never going to be good enough anyway. Let them learn their trade elsewhere. The sun shines on a dog's arse some days PISKIE, it doesn't seem to be shining much on our's at the moment though. If Wenger plays people with such fragile mentality we get what we deserve. He needs to buy players FIT FOR PURPOSE.
The sad thing is that a lot of the people on this forum are literally watching the match at home with their computers hoping to be able to type up a good moaning rant or abuse about something. Mid-game.
I think this board has some genuinely disgruntled fans, some who see us losing as an opportunity to bolster their doom mongering and some wums who are using the tension to try and stir up ****.
The fans were partly to blame to the result last night. The United fans (about 4,000 of them made as much noise as the whole home crowd for large periods of the game) - with fans like that moaning about everything we dont have a 'home advantage'. Sure things ar'nt going as well as they should be and its been a few years since we won a trophy but our club certainly has more 'plastics' than just about any other. We have a right to speak out and complain sure but we are Supporters and should SUPPORT our club through thick and thin. When things arnt going well that's when the team needs support the most. GET A ****ING GRIP GUYS - Show some 'fighting spirit' yourselves!!
I find that away fans make more noise than the home fans at most games.I prefer going to away games as i find our support is better
I agree with this 100% I think we've got too many Johnny come lately's who expect to 'entertained' first before they'll start supporting our players.
PISKIE - something you say that I agree with 100% Wenger said Football sold it's soul to the devil when it signed the TV deal with Sky, Arsenal sold it's soul to the corporates when they made the Emirates a nightmare to go to. Getting tickets to Highbury was far easier.
.........thankyou very much from us canaries. as an admirer of arsenal from their glory years (of distant memory now) i am totally shocked at wengers unwillingness to accept that there is anything wrong at the club and do something about it. it has been apparent for several years that the squad needed major improvements but as usual only youth players are drafted in, no major investment in quality players and an apparent unwillingness to change this attitude. saying this, i still watch all your televised matches in the hope of improvement.
It's when the chips are down that the true mettle of a supporter is tested. I've never had anything against constructive criticsm, but some of the tripe I've read on this board over the last few weeks convinces me that some people are just here to wum. As for the Emirates, we needed to attract the corporate element, that's a sign of the times. Unfortunately with that comes a lot of fairweather fans who don't know the meaning of 'support'.
I don't find the Emirates a nightmare to go to.The tickets go on sale and i buy one.It's quite simple really
