It was a good performance from the perspective of effort/commitment/workrate. (Performance level doesn't have to be purely a measure of technical football.) We are not always going to be sharp enough to pass everyone to death sometimes we have to just dig in and win dirty. That's what we did. If you can't appreciate that it's not my problem.
I am perfectly aware of that. However, we didn't display many of those qualities in this game. We are very, very lucky to be coming out with 3 points considering that was, in my opinion, the worst we have played this season. If that was any other team in the bottom half of the table bar the bottom 3, the likelihood is we wouldn't have won that game. I'd appreciate it if I felt we displayed those characteristics properly. Unfortunately for you, I don't feel that we did.
I thought after we managed to score there was a lot of effort and commitment on show, we put in a lot of tackles and won back possession well. We had difficulties in midfield that meant Newcastle, who played well, repeatedly got chances and we didn't particularly play well or click together properly, however I thought several players who have already looked tired recently, put in a good shift. We could easily have conceded more opportunities and possibly a goal at the end if the team didn't keep up the effort. I'd say there were very poor aspects of our play today but we also did enough to get the three points and that goes down to work rate for me.
This just proves you are overtly negative in your assessment. We had 51% possession, more of the game was spent in the Newcastle half than ours, we had more shots on goal. Whichever way you look at it to say were were outplayed is a bit of a stretch. It was actually a pretty even game. Like I said previously we are not always going to pass our opponents to death - sometimes you just have to work hard and win ugly. Was a good result.
Relieved that we scraped the victory together, but I do wonder about the mentality of this team, especially when we are on good form. Newcastle may have played well, but we didn't do any favours for ourselves by playing poorly and lacking intensity. I also don't understand all these tired excuses, when you're top and have a great chance of winning the title then you automatically put the required effort. We're half way through, not at the end of the season.
I really don't want to argue over something like this because I am happy we got the 3 points and we are top of the league. But I don't agree with your assessment of the match. Look at the possession stats all you like, but if you objectively observed that performance with your eyes over the 93 minutes, it is not a stretch to say we were outplayed. Because we were. They had more chances than us, they had better chances than us and even Wenger himself admitted that we weren't good enough to score more than 1 goal today. You've just used a bunch of buzzwords to describe our team like you always do and it has no relevance to the context of the game. Where was the effort of Ramsey and Flamini to do their jobs properly in midfield? Where was the commitment and concentration when our defenders kept getting the ball nicked off their feet by their players? Where was the effort and commitment when we kept misplacing our passes and they countered us on multiple occasions in the first half? Where was the effort of Walcott who was absolutely anonymous for the entire match, yet again, and when he did get involved, he kept giving them the ball at every opportunity? There are only two players who can come out with their heads held high from that performance. Ozil and Cech. The rest can get to ****. On a side note, if Flamini was injured or wasn't fully fit to start the match, why not start Chambers? He'd played in that position before and has fresher legs, given his lack of game time this season.
That's fine, I really don't agree with your own assessment either. I will say that's a ridiculous statement from Wenger seeing as we were very unlucky not to have scored one of those chances in the last 5 mins.
Cech was excellent again today. Really turning into one of our best recent signings. The guy is just TOP class.
Cech was great today, it's so good seeing a solid keeper at back and not be scared of letting in a soft goal.
On a more positive note, Sanchez's return should inject some much needed energy in our attacks and put OXO firmly on the bench!
I was thinking actually we are currently missing a player who can win us a game 'out of nothing'. Sanchez and Carzorla are the two players we have who can do that for us. Particularly Sanchez, looking forward to seeing him link up with Ozil on his current run of good form.
That should make a big difference. Sanchez will be the first to come back and will be desperate to play and perform. Sometimes a single persons intensity can change the mentality of the whole team.
Just got back from the match and have read some of your comments. I agree the football was not necessarily aesthetically pleasing,but with Newcastle putting an uncharacteristically good shift in and sticking to a game plan, the overall result was good. As a few of you have pointed out already, these are the type of games we have been known to screw up. If, after the game at Southampton, someone had offered us being two points clear tonight, I would have bitten their arm off. Three points is a must, the artistry is a bonus at this time of the season.
Just got in from the game, the performance was pretty dire. We were painful to watch at times. I thought it could not get any worse than the Bournemouth game, I was wrong. I don't recall us registering a shot on target in the first half. My mate was able to put a positive spin on the proceedings today, He said look at Chelsea in the second half of the season last season.... Doubt if I could stomach 4mths of us playing like we have done in the previous 3-4 games. We need to wake up and wake up fast. We cannot go to Stoke and Liverpool and play like we did today. We really looked bereft of ideas today... I have to hand it to Cech tho, I see what they say he is worth 12points.... without him we could quite possibly have lost. Feel for Newcastle though, just have to wonder why they are 3rd from bottom, if they can play like they did today.
Didn't see the game today as I took the family to see Star Wars. Sounds like we were pretty poor, but we got the 3 points, so I'll take that any day
We defo need to start raising our game, I remember 2 seasons back when we were challenging, it was around this time in which we were starting games slow, getting dominated, but always found a way to pull through because the opponents weren't very good in finishing us off. Around that same time I said if we continue playing like that we'd get smashed by the likes of Liverpool, which did happen, we got hammered 5-1, and now again we are going to play Liverpool in quite similar circumstances, we go there on the back of some of the worst performances of the season, and there is no way in hell we will make it out of Anfield if we start as bad as we have done in our last 3 games, and the same goes for Stoke away. We are going to need some very good performances from our next 3 league games, Liverpool away, Stoke away, and Chelski home, if we want to get anything out of those 3 games, if we play as bad we have done in our previous 3, I could see us coming out with only 1 or 2 points. You can these results against your Bournemouths and Newcastles at home, but at Anfield and the Britania? Forget about it.
Every team is going to have it's ups and downs. What bugs me is that when teams like Chelsea and United have had their downs and won those scrappy games they're deemed as digging in and winning ugly but Arsenal are wobbling/weak/lucky (insert derogatory adjective of choice). I don't doubt for one minute that they're aware they underperformed and will attempt to improve on that and it's good enough for me. Being top of the league has made me all kinds of magnanimous. FYI there was some statistic out recently addressing our choking tag come the turn of the season. Too busy to dig it out but in the last 9 years we've kept the same position twice, dropped twice and improved 5 times. Pretty sure that's accurate anyway, not sure where I saw that, twitter I think. Will see if I can hunt it down when less busy. Even as an eternal optimist that surprised me.
Was something Tim Stillman retweeted. A small article by BobbySoccerRep entitled Myth Busting. Not just on us, there were other things but that Arsenal snippet was no. 9 on his list if anyone gives a fook. Yeah...work has slowed right down. Or I have and work has to follow suit.
