Chelsea weren't impressive today. If we play like we did today we should be able to beat both Spurs and Chavski. Do that and we're going into the City match in a good position (and hopefully Judas and Shrek can help Moyes do over City)
Not to sure, your perfiormance against top 7 sides hasnt been to impressive. Plus you play Chelsea away which will be tough And Jose will know how to stop Liverpool SAS and get a draw at Anfield or get a lucky win.
the top manager like mourinho usually set their teams up to negate arsenal's play, and since wenger has no plan b it usually works.
Yeah, Have to agree with this. Mourinho is a nightmare for Wenger because he adapts, while we just stick to our plan A.
We were not good yesterday but never usually are international breaks. It was more a game Spurs lost than we won but we took advantage and bearing in mind our best player wasn't fully fit and Oscar/Willian on the bench we did alright. Right now Chelsea look pretty unbeatable against the top 7 and I don't see that changing. It's a fairly settled side now playing with confidence. We have beaten Liverpool and Arsenal already this season and I think psychologically that will help us negotiate both fixtures. The bigger worry is the lesser teams that have caused us problems all season round.
You beat a league cup team when half our team weren't bk from injury. In the league we drew and I thought we looked the more likely to win it. It'll be a difficult game but I think a draw is likely and I wouldn't write off us winning it.
Where's all the talk of the man city meltdown? They've had a worse result in the cl than us and got dumped out of the fa cup by Wigan. They have games in hand in the league but are currently 4th. Lots of talk about arsenal and other teams falling apart but city seem immune to it.
Given the amount of money they have spent too, it's quite staggering that they don't seem to get anywhere near as much criticism as Arsenal.
I think it's funny how some pundits are saying City were unlucky, from what I was watching, City had their asses handed to them in the first half and were lucky not to be 2 to 3-0 down, yeah they had some good chances in the second half, but so did Barca, so overall you could say a 6-2 Barca scoreline would've been fair, but hey City are not Arsenal so obviously pundits aren't going to be too harsh on City and rather say they were 'unlucky' and aren't that 'far off' from competing with Europe's elite even though on their last 3 occasions in Europe they've shown nothing at all to indicate that.
Yes it does seem that Man City is immune to criticism despite spending an absolute fortune on players. Just image the level of criticism Wenger would get if he spent a shed load of players and then did **** all in the champs league.
Citeh have been dumped out of the FA & European cups this week but are not getting any criticism from the media.
Danny Mills has come out this morning and said that City need to 'Spend big' to compete. Has he forgotten that they have spent over a BILLION pounds on the squad since the sheikh took over ?
What a ****ing idiot, spend big? Unless I'm delusional but haven't they already spend an absolute fortune on player fees and wages? They have one of the best squads in Europe yet Danny Mills wants them to spend more on players? Sometimes I wonder about people writing in Sports columns, they show near to 0 intelligence.
So we get beaten at Stoke comfortably and suddenly we're capable of going to Chelsea and winning? Are we forgetting what has happened in 99% of matches this season where we've played away against any team that's not entirely rubbish? I'd love if we beat Chelsea and we have the ability to, but AW's tactics and ability to motivate his team for 90 minutes of football in the last few years means I'm not filled with confidence. Comments like "I'm expecting Arsenal to go into our game with Chelsea going for the win" are entirely meaningless. You think Arsenal ever go for anything other than a win? You think AW has an alternative tactic where we play for draws? You think AW going for a win suddenly means that we're going to win the game?
Firstly you have to have belief that you can win the game, otherwise you might as well not turn up. Secondly we've beaten chelsea on their own ground recently, remember the 3-5 a couple of seasons ago ? Thirdly if our team had the same attitude of some of our fans then the term bottlers would be justified. Personally, and I'm sure the players think the same, is that they can go to Stamford Bridge and win the game.
I'm sure they go there believing they can win... but what exactly does that mean? You think Chelsea will be there not believing they can win too? Does believing you'll win mean you'll win? We beat Chelsea 30 months ago... not exactly recent... we've played them five times since then drawing two and losing three, scoring two and conceding six. That one win came when we had a world class forward and they had a world's worse manager. Your 'thirdly' point isn't a point, Arsenal have an appalling record against teams who aren't rubbish... that's fact. You can choose to ignore that fact if you think that acknowledging it makes you a 'bottler' but that fact exists. It's AW and the team's job to change it. Has it looked like changing recently?
No need to imagine, we spent huge money on 1 player (Ozil) and look how the media are crucifying him, now imagine we signed 3-4 other players with huge huge money.
Surely every footballer should think this before every game? If they dont then why bother even turning up! Wenger's weakness against Mourinho has already been touched upon in this thread. He never has a plan B, Arsenal will always play HIS way, and then he has to hope its enough for them win. So many times this season we have gone in at half time trailing or drawing 0-0 and come out for the second half and won. Our points gained from losing positions this season is ridiculous. This is a testament to Jose's tactical skill. Wenger just doesnt have it in him to adapt, far too stubborn. He is a good manager, but his talents lie in spotting young, raw talent and moulding the players into talented, skilled professionals. Maybe better suited to a scout/coaching role imo. This is why Arsenal have been sorely lacking in success in the CL, because Wenger relies on the talent of his players and the one dimensional way in which they are trained to see them through. Against weaker opposition with vastly inferior skill to Arsenal, this works, but when you come up against teams that can match or exceed your skill, Arsenal rarely emerge victorious. Its not that Arsenal are bottlers, its that Arsene just wont deviate from his one tactic, no matter where you are playing, who you are playing or what competition you are playing in. This is why Arsenal have not won a trophy in 9 years. P.s Am not Wumming, half my family support Arsenal, this is just my objective opinion. Please go easy on the ban hammer
Don't disagree with you. I said a few months ago, that Wenger has total faith in his methods which may have been successful 10 years ago but he has failed to adapt to the changing nature of the PL while other teams have moved on. Even teams in the Championship will adapt to the team they are playing but because we play with such a specific style it makes it harder to adapt to certain situations. I'd like to see us play more like we did against Dortmund when we beat them earlier in the CL. How much of that victory was down to Wenger's tactical acumen is debatable but it was a strategy that seemed to work better than say for example, our tactics at City and United. Just my 2c.
