What irks me also is that we seem to settle for mediocrity. Can anyone remember the last time we won a game we were expected to lose? Me neither. Are we now expected to lose home/away to Liverpool, Manure, Spurs, Chelsea and Citeh?
At this point where we are, we need to temper expectations, and how we react to results (good or bad). So as to give the new management room to find consistency (good or bad). Everything is still new. 22 yrs of influence will not go away in an instant. For now, I think we are better to judge on what the new team is trying to do and their attitude. Do we see traits that will sustain them when they come good?
Away from home absolutely, you are big underdogs against the rest of the big6, especially now the spuds have got over their hoodoo against you. last 2 seasons and the current one, away from home in the league is ugly reading! P11 W0 D2 L9 2pts from 33!! At home, you should be expected to be a challenge for anyone and barring City, do generally compete even if you don't always get the result. P11 W3 D4 L4 13pts from 33
Came across this. Completely agree with this http://www.skysports.com/football/n...icism-is-a-nonsense-according-to-gary-neville
Maybe not at home, but away from home, there's very little expectation on any away side to beat one of the other big six's at home. Barring City last season, I can't recall any of the big six having a strong away record against the other top six sides. United's was ok too actually, but broadly speaking: because of the fierce competition/how tight it is between these teams, a win at home and avoiding a loss away has to be measured as a big success if you can get that. A win at home and a loss away would probably be par for the course (again, possibly excluding City). As has been said before, you don't need to have a good record against your closest rivals to win league titles. You need to be consistent enough to beat all the other teams though, which isn't as easy as it seems.
I hate picking out players for criticism. Ozil had only 15 passes against Chelsea, but that means we only got him the ball 15 times. If we drop him, and then the other team are all over Mkhi, suddenly Mkhi is wrapped up, and someone else has a good game and so it goes on. I'm not saying that Ozil is entirely blameless, maybe he was only open for a pass 15 times, but this is not something that is just easy to see. We came pretty close to getting a result against a top 6 team, with a new system. Chill guys, we don't need to be picking anyone apart just yet.
Just to clarify I am not picking out any player to slate. I was just trying to make a point that our new manager is not scared to pull the trigger when players are under performing, giving other players in the squad a chance to stake a claim. So the likes of Iwobi, Nelson, Elneny etc. need to be ready to impress. Gone are the days of the predictable Arsene.
I think it needs time to gel. As I said, Chelsea away, pretty tight game, not bad, particularly considering the last goal was a lapse of concentration in midfield. 2-2 would have been a fairer result for me. At this level, you don't have time to think, it is instinct and that takes time. If we are this close to Chelsea at this stage of the season, then it isn't going to take much improvement to get into the top 4. I rather like the fact that Ozil was all wrapped up. They really over-played him and Mkhi in particular ran riot. We just couldn't quite get over the line. It also means that other teams will realize that shutting down Ozil isn't the only thing they have to do to win anymore. That is going to be a problem for them. You can't look at the defence in isolation from everything else. If everything else works then so will the defence.
