I can't believe there are people who don't care about the FA cup. It's a big one, in my opinion just for the tradition and history associated with it. Plus at the moment, ANY trophy is a success. If we keep down-playing every competition we're in, what's the point of even competing?
I don't think that, in our case, that the ref thing and the Wenger thing are the same. We had losses against Norwich and Swansea where the team wasn't good enough and deserved to lose. I think there were other excuses that could be made, but in general the Wenger critics had fair points, well made after those games. These Mike Dean losses are so inevitable that it goes beyond normal ref complaining. We simply don't win with him in charge.
While I rate CL footy more than the FA Cup, it'd been so sweet towin it, and I still think it's one of the major competitions.
The FA Cup certainly isnt as big as it used to be b ut is still a big trophy. Id rat ethem in order (worst to best) Capital oone cup FA Cup CL qualification (I know its not a trophy but Wenger thinks it is so Ive added it) Champions League Premier League Its a hard call for the last 2 but I think the PL would just edge it for me. Id love us to win a real trophy though, rather than Wengers beloved CL qualification.
It depends what type of football fan you are. If your Sky era/modern football fan it goes: Champions League Premier League CL qualification FA Cup Carling Cup If your more of a traditionalist then it goes: Premier League FA Cup Champions League CL qualification Carling Cup. If your a bit of both then it's in between. I'd personally rather win any trophy than come 4th. 4th isn't success but Sky/UEFA have glorified it as such.
If you think Dean has it in for Arsenal you should have seen Graham Poll with Chelsea. The man cost us an FA Cup Final place and ended our proud unbeaten record against Spurs, not to mention countless biased officiating in other games. Upon retirement Poll has even admitted he doesn't like Chelsea and has written several columns in the Mail slamming Chelsea and the players. Arsenal managed to beat Spurs 5-2 with Dean as ref despite him incorrectly awarding a penalty because Arsenal showed fight, spirit and character. That team fought for the cause. As critical as I am of Wenger your players shouldn't get off scot-free, I didn't see the game but I'd hazard a guess a number of your players were poor. Scoring first on Tuesday for Arsenal is massive, the fans need a lift and a good performance, it's up to the players to deliver and Wenger to motivate them. If Arsenal can't get up for Bayern, Wenger should be sacked, I expect nothing less than to see Arsenal come firing out the blocks on Tuesday, If that doesn't happen, it should be Au Revoir Wenger.
It doesn't have to be one or the other, that's just how it works. There's a point in our season where it comes down to this, pursue a meaningless cup which won't do anything for development, or pursue a place in Europe, Arsene Wenger is making the right choice every time, love him or hate him, he's keeping us where the board wants us. Plenty of players in our team have won things:- Mertesacker has won the German equivalent of the FA and League cup. Vermaelen has two Dutch equivalents of the FA cup. Rosicky won the Bundesliga with Dortmund. Arteta's won the Scottish treble. Podolski's won the Bundesliga. Giroud's won the Ligue 1, as has Gervinho along with the Coupe de France. Squillaci's won the Copa del Rey with Sevilla, the Ligue 1 twice and the Coupe de France. Arshavin's won two Russian Premier Leagues and a UEFA Cup. Cazorla's won two European Championships and he'd undoubtedly have a World Cup medal as well had he not unfortunately been injured. We have winners in the team.
I dunno what game these people were watching but i would be hard put to see ONE serious instance of bias from the referee in this game today. Yet some are trying to blame the WHOLE ****IN SHAMBLES on mike dean . pathetic, as has been said , you sound like Liverpool fans. Mike Dean didnt make the forehead useless. Mike Dean dont make players fall over their own feet. Mike Dean dont make Giroud head the ball directly at the keeper.
Wenger saps the winner out of even the best players. In a flash they have gone from individual genius , to tippy tappy passing robots .
FA Cup a meaningless trophy? I'm sorry but that is such a pathetic comment. If you won the cup how chuffed would you lot all be? If other fans belittled it and said oh well it's only the crappy FA cup after you would tell them to do one. The bitterness is unbelievable and actually really making you look like such sore losers. Take it on the chin, you lost, **** happens, at least you have a big game on Tuesday that I wouldn't be surprised at all if you won. Saying its the refs fault and the FA cup isn't important is just plain sad.
Well, only one person (The Zlatan) on here is saying the FA Cup is not important, and he is hardly bitter or a sore loser because of that, because even before we lost to Blackburn, I seen comments from him saying that the FA Cup was not important compared to coming fourth. So no, he is just consistent in his views.
Well said! We really need Giroud to step it up against Bayern. If he can't finish himself at least set up Walcott/Cazorla/Wilshere for some goals. If he fails in this series as well it is really not a good sign, he is past the adjusting phase by now.
Ok fair point but his views certainly couldn't be more wrong! I would understand if it was the league cup we were taking about although I think both of our teams would happily take winning that right now!
This defeat was a symptom of our lack of depth through the squad and a lack of players who want to bust a gut to win. Our first team are as good as anybody on their day, but we are still coming undone when the strength of our squad is examined. Anyway, we have to take this on the chin and start preparing for Bayern, as although I would have loved to win the FA cup, the Champions League games are much more important.
Yes the Champions League is more important there is no denying that. However the FA cup is still in the top 3 trophies you want to win. You are degrading a trophy you have won 10 times and proudly (rightly so) display this fact round your new stadium. Yes on your day you can be fantastic and beat most teams but you are inconsistent so really the premier league is not looking a likely trophy you will win in the near future. This leaves the Champions league and the FA cup as the other best things to win. You should be gutted you lost yesterday and not think oh well we have the champions league this week which is much more important. I was fuming for days after our non performance v Leeds. Although you could win the champions league the chances of it happening are very unlikely so you have now very likely lost any chance of winning something again this year.
Only a few people here are saying it isn't important and blaming the ref. Most of us wanted to go for the win, including our manager when he sent on his 3 best players to rescue the game. He took a gamble and it didn't pay off. Let's see if his gamble will pay off against Bayern. Funny to say but i expect us to do better against Bayern, and a win wouldn't surprise me at all. But we should have targeted the FA rather than the CL in my opinion.
I agree Lazarus it would be typical Arsenal to beat Bayern! Obviously I keep hoping for you to completely fall apart but you always seem to smash a team or get a win that looked on paper you would probably lose (Sunderland away for example) to get back on track again. I know our 4th place trophy competition will go right to the wire!
That is true, but I would put most of our success this season to a few players, Wilshere, Cazorla and Walcott. But if it wasn't for Wilshere's playing so well so quickly and Cazorla hitting the ground running, we would have been in a lot more trouble. These guys will make a huge impact against Bayern this Tuesday, something we missed yesterday with players that hadn't played much this season.
