I expressed a fear that having got ourselves in a strong position we would repeat the comdey of the last couple of seasons and disintegrate in the last few games of the season. I hope it's just a hiccup, and a wake up call, but it's annoying ghow ofetn we seem to need these. I hate this time of the year.
We are more likely to turn the hiccup into a mini crisis by adopting piss poor tactics as evidenced today. WE need to get back to winning tactics as quickly as possible and stop tinkering with something that doesn't need to be tinkered with.
Amen - it is still totally baffling what Wenger did today. He seems to hit the self destruct button under pressure.
I cannot only assume that there is some burn-out in the squad. A lot of those players looked like they were running on empty.
Well below average performance, everything was too slow and when that happens players like arteta look average because they play the ball back and side to side, we never looked like hurting them and we were out-fought. Our defense struggled to cope with zamora and we offered nothing really in the final third. In instances like these wenger should be going mental at the players at half time to get a reaction from them. Its clear for everyone to see that we play better when we up the tempo and close down the opposition quickly and pass the ball quickly when we have the ball, but for some reason we didn't do it today and we got what we deserved, we need a reaction next week against a city team that seem to be stuttering.
AFC play at a much higher tempo than most teams, especially teams like QPR, and Wenger has relied on basically the same set of players all season. What we saw yesterday was always going to happen at some time. The real worry now is that the squad doesn't fully recover its full fitness from now until the end of the season.
We should adopt our approach as on that evening in May 1989 when we went up to Anfield. Instead we were almost the reverse yesterday and lowly QPR showed a level of determination which we were unable to match. Why it is that every now and then we let this happen when we know what it is we have to do baffles me. We're only in one competition and play at rate that averages one game per week. The players really shouldn't be running on empty.
We have not relied on the same players all season - in fact due to injuries we have used many 3rd string players at times. We also have not played at a higher tempo - this is plain wrong. We have played quite slowly this year, and our possession means we should be LESS tired than other teams as we chase the ball less. We're no worse off than any other team - in fact we might be better off physically - and QPR hounded us all over the park yesterday and ran their socks off.
Ummmmmnnnnn....... ask me that again in 10 years!!!!!! I think Arsene really needs to go though with our thanks naturally. If we retain him in some sort of way, may it be an honorary post. His time and ways are of the past and while in his past we have gained much, the cupboard has been bare for a number of years and our beautiful football is rarely seen. Even worse, our underbelly has become soft. We have lost the steel in our side. It is time to get it back or we'll forever have to rely on others to find a crumb for our plate. In these past years we have become pushovers with the occasional and alas unsustainable fortuitous run of good fortune.
We seem to rarely show a hunger that befits a side out to make a gain. Worse still as seen yesterday, we appear to think we could stroll it. Complacency is a thing that besets our side. This happens time and again. Some people at our club need to wake up.
We're all entitled to our own opinion but I disagree completely. Arsene has had the task of financing our entire stadium debt whilst mounting a serious charge for cl places. I don't agree with every thing he has done but overall he is the best possible man to take ur club forward. The way I see it his hands have been tied financially and achieving top four is quite a feat under the budget. If we were to sack him I don't think any other manager could manage as well. I also think most people are mistaken if they think we are going to get a big name manager IMO as they would demand significant sum of money for transfers. I know most (ok everyone!) will disagree with me but I would like to see Steve bound being given a chance once wenger retires...que exclamations of psychiatric disorders I'm the victim of..though I won't have time to reply seeing as I'll be out for a couple of hours though I might reply. Once I come back!
You can't start talking about burn-out in response to one game... Before QPR it was fine, now suddenly we've passed some threshold for fitness because we lost? We lost because the form of some crucial players is dipping, and it has been dipping for the last few games. Van Persie and Vermaelen to be specific. We also lost because Wenger played Ramsey out of position and he had a terrible game. Ramsey shouldn't have even started that game. We lost because QPR were more "up for it" than we were. Our league position made us complacent. Their league position made them determined. It's not a loss of fitness, it's a loss of motivation. I've seen Arsenal turn on and off their ability to chase down the ball at will. It should never turn off tbh, but I can tell when Arsenal turn it on. Mid-season we were turning it on in response to scoring a goal, or defending a lead in the dying minutes... probably because Wenger told them they have to work extra hard at these times (in response to the way we would always concede after scoring or in the last minute).
I think you have been taken in by the stadium red herring. Our increase in gate receipts more than off sets the payments we have to make. In fact we're better off by about £10m per year. The reason we have not bought is down to philosophy rather than finance.
Is he trying to compete with Gareth Bale as the biggest cheat in football? It seems it is all the home grown players that are the biggest cheats these days, but the foreigners get all the criticism.
