Barring a miracle in the Champions League, Arsenal will have to wait until 2013 to win a trophy after Sunderland ruthlessly dumped the Gunners out of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win at the Stadium of Light. A deflected Kieran Richardson effort gave Martin O’Neill’s men the lead before half-time, before an Alex Oxlade Chamberlain own goal compounded Arsene Wenger’s misery with fifteen minutes left on the clock.
Things looked to be going OK for five minutes. We controlled possession in the opening exchanges, knocking the ball around with confidence and showing no sign of a hangover from the rout in the San Siro. After great build up play Van Persie was taken down by a Sunderland man and Arteta lined up the resulting free-kick. His decent effort whipped past the post from 25 yards. After that though it was all down hill.
While Kieran Gibbs had been expected to start at left-back, the England man was nowhere to be seen when the teams stepped out on to the field of play. Francis Coquelin was his replacement, but somewhat typically given our season, he went down after nine minutes clutching his hamstring. Vermaelen was shifted out to the left again and everybody’s favourite French defender Sebastien Squillaci came on to make up a makeshift partnership with Djourou in the middle.
The injury to Coquelin interrupted our early rhythm and nervousness returned to the fore. Sessegnon had a snap shot from outside the box which didn’t trouble Fabianski. Ramsey and Song both hit the turf and gingerly limped back into the action while Djourou and Sagna seemed to repeatedly lose their footing when attempting clearances. We were rattled.
On 27 minutes a break led by Van Persie saw Gervinho, making his first start since returning from the African Cup of Nations, charge through on goal. His first touch controlled the ball, his second teed it up, his third hit a fierce effort which Mignolet parried over. It was an encouraging bright spark during a turgid period of play.
Four minutes later Van Persie drove into the box chasing a Song through ball. The Dutchman was felled by an untidy challenge by John O’Shea and Arsene Wenger immediately called for a penalty. You wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been given, although our captain didn’t make a big fuss about it. Back on the front foot we again controlled possession although clear cut chances were few and far between.
Five minutes before half-time clumsiness by Djourou led to a booking for the Swiss and free-kick to Sunderland on the right corner of the Arsenal box. Despite the ball being cleared by Vermaelen it was returned with venom by Kieran Richardson from the edge of the area and crashed past Fabianski. Replays showed the shot clipped Squillaci on the way, a touch which diverted it goalwards. 1-0 to the hosts.
The second 45 minutes started as the first finished – indecisiveness by Bacary Sagna leading to a foul on McLean and a booking for the Frenchman. Larsson from the edge of the box curled the resulting free-kick just over.
Aaron Ramsey, who appeared to pick up a knock early, was replaced by Tomas Rosicky on 51 minutes and to add to the ridiculousness of our injury crisis sub Squillaci also limped off the field with Theo Walcott coming on. Alex Song became the auxiliary centre-back again. We were all over the shop, indiscipline rife through the ranks. Vermaelen the latest to be handed a caution for a stupid challenge on the touchline.
The pitch wasn’t helping matters. Last week Per Mertesacker rolled his ankle, this week Sunderland’s Bardsley was the victim as the turf continued to give way. The hosts were aggressive in the tackle and closed down with real passion. Having had a week to mull over Thierry Henry’s last gasp winner they appeared in the mood for revenge.
In truth, not much happened for about 20 minutes. It was a scrappy affair, both sides struggling to string passes together, Arsenal more so than the Black Cats. With fifteen minutes to go Vermaelen sent a tepid header goalwards. Certainly not much to shout about. To rub salt into the wounds within a minute we went 2-0 down.
A break by Sunderland saw Sessegnon running directly at the Arsenal defence. Arteta fell over chasing back, the Benin international fed Larsson whose shot hit the post. As the ball rolled across the goal line Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who had raced back to help defend inadvertently diverted the ball over the line. An own goal. 2-0. Game over. Season over.
In the last ten minutes there should have been a reaction…a show of heart, passion, a sense of responsibility towards the badge and the travelling fans. Instead there was nothing. Nothing at all. We were nothing short of a joke.
Somehow we have to find focus to fight for a top four finish in the final three months of the season. Not even the most fervent gambler would be back us right now.
Ho-hum.
From Milan to Wearside, to Hell and Hell again.
miserable eh? get used to it. I suggest we lower expectations of this team. they are soooo bad.
We all love Wenger but changes need to be done as we are not progressing or improving.1) Get fresh ideas, bring in Dennis Bergkamp & Tony Adams as assistants 2) Sign some quality experienced top drawer international players like Hazzard,Goetze, Christian Erikson,Benzema,Hamsik & Mvillaa.3)Get a specilaised defence coach and pay attention to defensive coaching/set pieces 4)Stop living in our past glories and looking at players like Campbell & Henry for Salvation 4/Become tactically more astute and flexible, we cannot play the same way all the time and against all opposition
back in 2001 my girlfriend at the time said she didn’t understand why I supported a team who only win.. she said it was boring.,..
….
….. fuck I like being bored.
We don’t have the bottle for a fight.You can’t play proper football
on a field like that but we cannot adapt and mix it up.
This group of players really do not meet Arsenal standards.
The amazing thing is that the other teams chasing 4th place are
making a dogs breakfast of it so we may still sneak in.
What a week but then we must get used to this type of week every
year at this time.
I feel ashamed of these types of performance. max 3 shots on target all game.
Aren’t people used to this by now? I feel like we’ve gotten this same exact result at the same time of the year about six years in a row.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Fuck this fucking cunt of a season.
Fuck.
POO
At least we didn’t let them score we took the selfish route and scored for them…twice.
This Is A Manchester United Fan’s Post In A Group:
Arsene Wenger was close to tears in the 89th minute of the game.
Even though I don’t like Arsenal, its sad to see such a legendary manager becoming emotional.
Well, When A Non-Arsenal Fan Has So Much Sympathy And Respect For Wenger !
Where As We Gooners Want Wenger Out ! If A United Fan Respects Wenger So Much ! Then How Much Should We Respect Him ?
These Are The Times When We Should Support Him !
Any other Gooners out there feel like they might be being conned? 5th wealthiest team in the world that doesn’t win anything? Aims to finish 4th to qualify for a championship that we have no chance of winning with the squad we have? Who is reaping the profit? Certainly not us fans who have to put up with the same failure at the same time year in, year out. Does Arsene really think that Djouru, Scillachi and Chamakh are good enough to play for us? Who motivates this team to continually under perform, they lack passion and a winning mentality.… Read more »
I’m curious to see what happens if the Arsenal won’t win the derby…
We lent Bolton the wrong player. Will they take Theo for Ryo?
what the fuck has happened to us
What happened? AW persisting with a shocking loyalty and reward of average, under-performing and overpaid deadwood instead of strengthening the team with real quality, that’s what happened to us. Total bollocks, says I.
shocking loyalty is alright if they’re really good talents; shocking loyalty came good with RVP and Henry. It’s unlikely to come good with crap like Walcott.
I mean, do you honestly tell me that Arsenal Football Club cannot sign better players that would make a positive difference and contribution than Chamack, Park, Benayoun, Arshavin, Walcott, Squillaci, Almunia, Diaby (eternally injured), and even Ramsey?
We are AFC, not some cheapskate, broke-ass and barely-surviving mid-table team ffs. Sort it out Arsene or else make way for someone else who will.
So fed up with this crap.
Wenger sold us out in the summer and all the other transfer windows he earned money for the club when we needed reinvestment in the squad, instead of making huge profits. Wenger is ruining this club.
What happened? Wake-up call that was!
AW has a degree in economics. Kind of explains it.
Arsenal 2012/13 Sczh Sagna Baines Kos TV Wilshire Coq Ox Holliet Goetze Torres Subs Fab Song Santos BFG Rambo Agbonlahor J Campbell Perse is gone I’m afraid kids, & who can blame him. Sell Walcott & AA as well, & hopefully you get & £40-50m for those 3. That might pay for most of Torres & Goetze. Baines I think would be a revelation at Arsenal. I might also be tempted to see if we can get Fat Frank as well on the cheap. You also need to see if Joel Campbell is up to it, & Agbonlahor gives you… Read more »
I said this after the Milan game and got plenty of thumbs down but I will say it again now, we have not won a game since November when Ramsey started in the middle. Yet the arsene persists with his hell come good atitude, maybe with ramseys injury now we can get.ozyakup some game time because there’s no way he could be anyworse than this underperforming shameful lot
@Goontang. At times I wish blogger will rerun some previous news complete with the comment threads. People fronting up for Ramsey time after time. And then after Djorou got that contract extension people were praising Wenger while the few of us that dared to say it was a bad move were harassed, abused and thumbed down. There goes your ‘good squad member n amazing 4th choice CB AKBs’. I can stand the club and manager’s hypocrisy, but hypocrisy from fans?
Hate that we have become a feeder club who sell our best players and replace them with good players but not winners not stars not players who are ready to fight for there team Wenger has lost the plot. we have not been able to defend since the defence he inherited left. we are the laughing stock of the league no one fears playing arsenal anymore they all think they can win when they play us Silent Stan and Ivan Gutless out! Usmanov and Dein in we need a board who care about the results on the field not results… Read more »
Our whole inability was summed up as half time was approaching there was
no urgency and Webb blew the whistle while we passed the ball about
without any attempt to score a goal.
PS Did TW on as a subsitute? I saw more of AA on the subs bench
than TW.
Look on the bright side, at least now we can focus on being 4th! Yay! No but seriously, i always try to look for positives and we dont have to play on that shambles of a pitch for the rest of the season, plus we only have one game a week now (unless RVP scores 7 goals against Milan and kills Zlatan imacuntovich,) People forgot that at the start of the season we all wanted wenger out, then we played well in which case he was a great manager, now you all want him out again. What are we? Chelsea… Read more »
wtf. this is what you get when overrated players underperform. feeling slighlty disillusioned by it all now. another trophyless season and we’ve won FUCK ALL for 7 years.
this game wasn’t lost on Quality , we had more Quality , You don’t need Messi to win you this kind of matches . The players lacked drive and some of that cuntiness .
Maybe we need to add physicality and cuntiness , Is Pepe Available ? we don’t need hazard,gotze etc etc we need Shawcross,Kevin Davies and Cuntermole
Shawcross? Kevin Davies?
Unbelievable……..
I wasn’t serious by the way, we do need to add some physicallity just not to that extreme
why did people thumbs that down I thought it was pretty funny
Well that was diabolical this team has become stagnant a lot of players need to be removed like a gangrenous limb. It seems like Arsen no longer has the answers either and this team and club is just stagnating in mediocrity.
Fucking fuck.
Cunting piss flaps.
It was so hard to penetrate them without the Coq.
The coq went limp again, really need him to stiffen up.
The Coq seems to be the only one to go in head first, which is the reason why the Arse can’t penetrate in tight situations!
I’m not sure it would have made a difference to be honest. Sunderland seem to be perfectly good Coq blockers.
I’m buying an Arsenal shirt with “Self-Sustainable” written on the back.
Who’s with me?
Anybody?
5 people have no sense of humour
I’m gonna buy one saying ‘Europe is bankrupt’.
EVERYBODY OUT?!
Heh.
Season is over for me. Cant stand this shit no more. Need to get my nerves fixed before next season kicks off.
Total time waster.
Cue our annual February to May crisis
Wenger needs to fuck off and leave. Players need to be shown the door and new proper ones bought. Van Persie will leave this summer. Who would stay in a crappy team with no future! Why do I spoil my weekends and my moods? I must be a sucker for self punishment!!
The people giving this a thumbs down need to have a reality check. We have no future with wenger and the adshole stan at the helm.
The last 3 seasons, Wenger has had his most successful period of manager.
We’ve made a profit in each of those years. Granted the football side of things hasn’t gone so well, but who else can come in instead of Wenger and produce such fantastic financial results??
You can keep your Mourinho’s, Ferguson’s and Guardiola’s of this world. All the trophies in the world won’t win us any prizes at the annual Best Run Club Awards dinner
Silent Stan and Ivan Gutless out! Usmanov and Dein in we need a board who care about the results on the field not results in the bank! Wenger needs to buck up his ideas too we aint won shit since we went 433 need to get some support for RVP and go back to 442
who should we get? -The Manager should be doing better than Wenger at a big league(serie a ,la liga,epl,ligue 1) ie Better than 4th place and winning trophies -He should be available or have a short term contract ,so the Board can hire or pay his clause -He should be open to the job and they shouldn’t be from the opposition, So leave Fergie,Mourinho,that Bayern Coach,Arry Redknapp.Capelo etc etc out you’ll find out there almost no candidates , just look Chelsea ,with all the money they’ve got they had to get AVB who’s doing a worse job with bigger resource… Read more »
I hate to say this as I am an Arsene Wenger Stay fan but Luis van Gaal is available
Yeah he is a great Manager
So with the above requirements ,I made a list of managers who are doing well with their teams 1. Jose Mourinho : won’t want to come ,plus get high wages so the board can’t pay the release clause + he’ll bring cunts like Pepe and Carvalho with him 2.Pep Guardiola , there is a possibility ,but very little 3.Vicente Del Bosque : very unrealistic 4.Capello : hates England 5.Joachim Low : said he’ll see out his contract 6.Unai Emery : he is doing the same thing Wenger is doing with Arsenal , Finishing in the top 4 and selling his… Read more »
heh, how you see “a very little possibility” of pep guardiola joining us is beyond me I have to say…but I get your point. Let’s assume it’s all arsene’s fault, selling our best players and not spending money on quality — then getting a new manager, who’d get rid of all the deadwood and make some quality additions, would solve our all problems. But I just don’t see the board sending this new bloke on a shopping spree, spending all the money which arsene has saved in the last couple of years…a thing people who are crying for the sacking… Read more »
A cheeky question. What you guys think about David Moyes?
So far he has done very well at Everton despite the lack of resources and have consistently punch above their own weight, have an excellent track records of finding talents where no one would think of, capable of developing players young and old.
His team are usually gritty but are not afraid to play football when it matters and usually a never say never attitude.
They look so lost out there….. I am a little lost too. No confidence, no game…. WTF!
What can you say, am not gonna blame djourou as this was the whole teams fault again. Absolutely no imagination from the midfield. Totally disorganised from back to front. Have no idea where we go from here. we lost the battles all over the pitch and when we needed a response in the 2nd half it just didn’t happen. We had no leadership, no one willing to win the battles, no heart and no idea. Wednesday we were outplayed today we were out muscled. This arsenal squad offers nothing in terms of fight and that’s criminal.All the talk before about… Read more »
JD is crap
He may be crap, but tell me where was Vermaelen when Djourou made that foul that led to the first goal? He was left back and not anywhere inside our own half
Spot on.
this is the best of him. fuck.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/djourou-you-will-see-the-best-of-me-now
Well said bucko.
The last paragraph of yours, is so realistic that it hurt when I read it ):
I totally agree
…its gone
I simply can’t understand why no one from the team came to cheer the Ox up after the his unfortunate OG.
Also, Song, Djourou and Ramsey often complaining about the team for not getting balls etc. RvP was clearly frustrated after the 0:2. Not good!
Insecurity all over the place.
No titles this year.
because he was crap all evening and nobody is feeling particularly cheerful
Crap? His work rate was rather good compared to some others. At least he tried and never gave up.
so ‘tried’ is good enough for you? I’m looking for ‘did’. and he ‘did’ nothing. sorry to disappoint you, but he was bad. he constantly invited pressure and in the end was dispossesed. scored an own fucking goal and you talk about ‘work-rate’?I suppose you’re in love with ramsey because of work-rate?
To blame the OG on the Ox is the most shortsighted thing I’ve read so far. No, he wasn’t good tonight, but you tell me where was his support to get rid of the ball? Not only that, watch Vermaelen jog back and leave Larsson alone, who hit the post. And maybe, just maybe, Wenger should throw him in central midfield seeing as our midfield is shit.
don’t be silly, he’ll just pass the ball backwards.
In all this are we really going to start bashing an 18 yr old kid who’s barely played any games?!?! He busted a gut to get back and cover after losing the ball 70 yards up the pitch and he was really unlucky that it went in after he tried to clear it. I’m all for criticism of the management and the senior players who should know better, and are in fact the people who got us in this mess but in my view The Ox is blameless in this. Let’s get a sense of perspective and lay the blame… Read more »
Exactement!
Gunner16 – I can’t believe you’re already turning on the Ox after about 5 games, most of which he’s been out best player even though he’s only 18. Maybe you were trying in part to be funny but you made yourself sound like an absolute tosser!
Leave the Ox alone
crap performace. again and again. brrrrr. arsenal are a talented bunch of losers. we’ll lose RVP next season for sure; possibly the only guy who really wants to win every match. this team is an embarassment to the invincibles. DB, Petit, Keown have said as much. It’s embarassing to be an arsenal fan. I can’t even enjoy the banter nowadays cause I have none of my own
We’ll lose him at the end of this season as Arsene needs to make his £20M profit in transfer each year and I can’t see him making that even if he sells the rest of the squad.
Wat a load of shit. As predicted out of all competitions in a week. We need half a new squad and not the dregs that float about at the end of the season on the last day of the transfer window but real quality. Wenger will not win a thing until he buys quality. Either that or he must go.
mostly agreed, but i’m beginning to think that wenger’s main problem is MOTIVATION. he doesn’t seem to be able to get his players up to give an appropriate effort on matchday. no heart, no balls, no leadership… result = no accomplishments. this current team effort is soul-suckingly depressing. beginning to think i’d rather have a moyes or someone that can at least get 100% out of our squad.
What a load of shite! Whatever happened to the real Arsenal? It’s Wenger’s fault, tolerating and persisting with underperforming and average overpaid players instead of properly strengthening the squad. I’m distraught at the great fall of a once mighty team through consistently inept managerial decision-making.
Can’t expect to win if the team is not giving the required effort. Lost count of the number of times a player received the ball surrounded by two or three and yet had no teammate available to relieve pressure. Absolutely no urgency. No one took ownership of the problem. So many players are letting themselves, the manager, the club and the fans down.
Too many injuries are mounting up. Can’t shake up the personnel until the end of season. Must concentrate on 4th now. Thankfully Chelsea’s defense is as disastrous as ours.
It’s a combination of things. This 4-3-3 offers no support in the middle of the field, and now that is is being exposed the players are just shipping it in. That’s why you saw NO midfield in the last 2 games. Unreal
Players have to run to offer support. If they don’t move, they are easily marked. If they jog, they are easily tracked. Players have to RUN. If Larson, Cattermole, Gardner and that ilk can run 10 m to press, then any of the midfield three can RUN to provide an easy outlet, or take up space in between the lines to provide a forward option instead of dropping deep to receive a 5-7 yard square ball only to restart the same puzzle from a slightly different position. It’s absolutely agonizing to watch this team play this way for 90 minutes.
Can’t understand why we persist with this 4-3-3 now that Fabregas & Na$ri have left, we have an abundance of players that I would class as a number 10 such as Arshavin, Rosicky, Van Persie and Wenger insists on playing them out of position, Add to that Walcott who clearly wants to play up front being shifted out wide and there is no wonder we look unbalanced. My fear is that Walcott will get fed up playing out on the wing and see out the last year of his contract next season and go to a team that will play… Read more »
Walcott, Arshavin, squilaci, djorou, Ramsey, Rosicky, Denison, Bentdner, vela, Fabianski, almunia, Chamakh, park, diaby & Gibbs should all be sold in the summer – that’s 15 of a 25 man squad that are all shit. It’s not surprising we struggle…not good enough. To make matters worse I had to listen to those cunts on itv…most biased broadcasting ever…shocking
And sign own goal right?
agree with some on the list but whose gonna buy them?if anyone doesnt fucking release them.
fortunately only 5 of them played today, imagine if they all did?
And sign own goal right?
agree with some on the list but whose gonna buy them?if anyone doesnt fucking release them.
Couldnt watch the game but what the fuck i wtf did walcott do just saw his name mentioned twice once at sub and then being offside. Oh wait this is his final game on runs before putting one decent performance fuck it..
Agree about the commentary – I get the feeling that everyone is loving the demise of The Arse. Not sure getting of 15 of them is the answer though. Not sure we’re completely shit, but we have fallen a long way in just over 12 months. Barcelona last year does seem a long time ago.
I’ve said this on here more than once & it’s even more pertinent now we’re out of both Cups – finishing fourth would only paper over the cracks, & make the management think that the path they are taking us down is OK.
some of those 15 aren’t even included in the 25-man squad dumbass. Bendtner, Vela and Denilson are out on loan. Heck, Fabianski makes a decent deputy. Or what, you want Almunia as your back-up keeper? Go fuck yourself.
But that’s not to say you’re totally wrong.
Wenger: “the advantage of spurs is they are only playing in one league.”
Well now the fuck we are also playing in premier league only.
And as I recall they are still in the FA cup, expect Stevenage to go down by about 4 or 45 goals tomorrow.
Van Persie need to go. He wasted so much chance, dwell on the ball while Sunderland’s defenders parked their bus.
Those who disagree didn’t watch the game, obviously.
Because it is unheard of to watch the same game and have a different take on things? And even if the unanimous view was that he had a bad game, does he ‘need to go’ because of one bad game?
Dude, chill down. Just a sarcasm with some additional unreasonable reasons to support it. For those who want other players out.
Ok then..I couldn’t tell you were being sarcastic….but fair enough..
What a dick!
Correction – Gibbs, diaby & park – not shit just always injured or never seen play.
The second goal came from Vermaelen just jogging back and Larsson went right past him. By the time he looked it was too late. Even the few players I had faith in are killing us. This is pathetic, made to look like a championship side by Fulham, Swansea, AC Milan, and now Sunderland. WTF!
It’s fucking bullshit. It’s not losing or going out of the fa cup that really upsets me, it’s the fact that hardly any of the players cares. This is fucking arsenal football club.
I really am starting to think wengers time is up – first time I’ve ever said that.
Fucking rich useless couldn’t give a shit cunts.
I’m going to get ompletely blotto tonight. It’s thoroughly depressing being a gooner at this moment in time. The scumbags I’ll take us apart judging by this display .
To be fair, Ox chased down from right wing to our penalty area. Love this kid’s workrate. Where’s the other midfielders? I read at the official Arsenal website about Djourou saying that fans should expect his best on his prefered position. Fuck it, McDonald’s icon smile!
This probably won’t be popular but I actually didn’t think Djourou was awful today, bar giving away that stupid free kick (and considering who he was playing next to). Other than an OG and a somewhat flukey goal we weren’t exactly ripped apart at the back. I thought Ramsey and Arteta had shockers. Arteta had one against Milan too. He’s been a bright spot all season though, maybe it’s the playing in so many competitions for the first time in a long time?
Agree with this: Arteta was a huge disappointment. He has been probably our most consistent player until this week. I think he’s knackered.
One of Arsenal’s problems is the over-reaction to any defeat by our our strident and unobservant supporters. No wonder the players are demoralised.
An easy explanation for this defeat is that our players are tired and Sunderland’s were fresh. It was much more important to beat them last week than losing this game.
we pass backwards all the time. naturally we’ll get pressed in our own half then and since we’re a bunch of idiots; as soon as we’re pressed we lose the ball instead of playing beyond the pressure. TV had another bad game. wtf he’s overrated as hell. Djorou is so bad. Gervinho did nothing. Arteta was awful; he’s constantly being dispossesed. Ramsey and Walcott: If i go into them I’ll probably end up wwriting pages of critiicm. Frankly; all these players if they’re playing well are a decent side- top 4. but they’re constantly playing badly. and this backwards. sidewards… Read more »
At least I saw Rosicky worked hard despite being foul so many times. Fuck Howard Webb letting the game like fucking American Football.
Rosicky worked hard but he is not a good player. He hasn’t scored in years and his passing in the final third is inaccurate. Hard work and talent are required, not one or the other.
his shooting is awful but he’s STILL better than Ramsey
We played shit but what fucked me off the most tonight was not one of those over payed idiots went up and said to the OX dont worry mate this is not your fault.
What a bunch off shits to let a teenager trying his best to help out his team and they leave him to feel like shit.
We are nothing more than an expensive mid table team now so how do we pull it back.
Also well done to the travelling fans you have more pride than the team.
Every player on the team should look at Ox pick himself up, run the length of the field, and try to keep that ball out. Then they should look at Vermaelen jogging back with no effort whatsoever. The fact that an 18 year old winger is one of 3 guys chasing that ball down is just pathetic. Fuck this team
I am with you on that brother !!!
I totally agree
How noone consoled the Ox in the slightest is beyond me. Lad played his heart out, does it every game. He deserves better.
“Mental toughness, character, leaders, spirit” everything Wenger is telling us this team has is what’s missing in the team.
It´s easy to beat this Arsenal team. The only thing you need is 11 players willing to work hard and put the ball out for corners.
dont understand why people say AW has to go now, what manager will come in middle of the season and who would want to manage this pathetic team! hes the man for the job but with some changes to him
Wenger wont change.
H.P; don’t really agree with that. I think he will. I think he’s starting to show already. firstly a training ground tirade is uncharacteristic. then subbing of Walcott at half-time is something else he would rarely do. he might just be realising. shame it’s taken so long.
dont understand the dislikes because name me a manger who would come tommorow to arsenal? (a top class one that we deserve)
You could get Mick Fookin McCarthy and he’d do a better job than the senile old muppet in charge of our team. Wenger is beyond a joke, a truly atrocious manager with zero motivational skills and even less tactical nous.
WENGER OUT!!
But the point is that this season is over. Leaving it to the end of the season allows the club to do the two things they have repeated over the last few years. 1. Convince us that 4th is a title. 2., Start rumours about big name players to get the season ticket renewals in (notice how Hazard rumours have started again!) Being out of the Champions League next season is no bad thing – even better if we avoid the Europa Cup but to just sit here and watch this rubbish week after week without any attempt to make… Read more »
Capello
Why is Hazard going to come to Arsenal, may my tongue turn black and fall out for saying this but here goes, Spurs are a more attractive proposition than we are right now
If this is Arsene’s “attacking” football, then he needs to go and FAST
Why is there a sudden influx of Joshes? *sigh…*
If you don’t mind Ive laid claim to Josh already.
Out of the FA cup on our way out the champions league lots of injuries,Spuds next,RVP looks set to leave and who is to blame him.
But look at the positives …. Oh Fuck.
No one’s going to take the blame, Wenger’s not leaving, the board are going to do nothing. The players will only talk. We can either stay calm and continue to support the club we love through these lean times or just go mental, vent a little and support the club we love through these lean times. Away fans were amazing as usual. Away performance/result was a pity as usual. It’s all well and good saying ‘Wenger out’ or ‘sell half the team’….but it’s not happening so I am going to forget about today and hope next week brings something positive.… Read more »
It’s legitimate to (at least) question AW though. And I am/was a fierce AW supporter.
AR feels like the mid 90s as well – manager sucessful initially, had lots of power/influence, wasn’t able to change his tactics, team overly reliant on talisman striker, lots of players brought in not good enough to wear the shirt.
Within 3 years of GG leaving, we did the League & Cup double…..
SuperAnderslimpar you’re absolutely right, I wasn’t defending the manager or giving up on the club. I was only trying to make the point that even if it takes a while, success is around the corner…we’ve always had it in cycles. Regardless of who’s in charge this isn’t the worst state the club has been in though it feels pretty close to our lowest lows. A fellow Gooner told me in 1986 that Liverpool and man u looked like they were going to win every league title for the next 50 years…and the time it seemed like a decent prediction…..25 years… Read more »
AR we both want the same thing. Sounds like you & I have been supporting the club for a lot longer than some of the people on here, & as bad as it seems now, we’ve been in bigger holes than thus ( as bad as yesterday was, it wasn’t Wrexham away or Millwall at home) The only difference now is that we moved away from Highbury on the premise that we would be able to compete with the biggest & best clubs in world football. Our last year at Highbury, we knocked out Real Madrid & cam within 15… Read more »
Liverpool were and always will be the darlings of the media and ‘the people of England’ whoever these people are. My take on the move and this premise of being competitive is that it was based on there being only 2 other big teams competing for all the major trophies. I don’t think the club had a plan B in case other forces emerged a la Man City/Chelsea etc. Which if true was extremely short sighted. Of course you can take the cynical view that they were only looking to make money of us fans and sell us a dream… Read more »
Wenger needs to go. Look at Sunderland and how Martin o’neil has revitalised them. The team clearly don’t feel that he can lift them anymore. Anyone can stand in the sidelines and swear at the 4th ref. perhaps guardiola?
well said
Why would Guardiola want to leave Barca for us? *sigh*
maybe to be challenged again? but i doubt he will want to come.
i know maybe its hard for english people to have a balanced opinion now, but capello would be the man now for us.
look back at his days at juventus! he clearly knows how to motivate a club team, and he knows what it takes to win cups
As much I respect Mr. Capello but he would be a devastating choice. For the reasons that he hasn’t managed a club for what seems like forever. With his footballing philosophy we pretty much need a total revamp of the whole squad from top to bottom.
Mediocre team lots of arses voiced their concerns earlier in the season only to get thumbs down. Now we can see they were right. Now Wenger kindly fuck off.
If you’re worried about being thumbs down then isn’t that a bit vain? I mean its not exactly someone replying to you, personally insulted you and said you belong to a mental institute.
Our wingers were invisible again. Where is the one two beautiful passing football? No body coming to help winger from midfield which usually allows them to break defenders from double team. It started to fade since last year where they still played those style few times. But this years, I only saw 2 or 3 times. Arteta dwells on ball, Ramsey dwells on ball (then lost it). The only players I can see triggring those passes: Rosicky, Song, RVP and.. nope, that’s it.
We _must_ buy a creative, technically superb midfielder in the summer. But who will come? Arsenal will have to pay big wages to get someone of the required quality. Here’s the problem that needs to be fixed: At the end of Last season, Ramsey was behind 3 players (at least) for the position he’s in now–Cesc, Nasri, Wilshire. This season, after one injury, he’s an automatic starter! I can’t understand why Wenger is persisting with him when he’s consistently, repeatedly shown himself not good enough to carry that burden in this team with the ambitions it has. He may be… Read more »
Goetze is the only player of quality I know of, but again he’s a kid who hasn’t really won anything. Maybe we should think about Kaka if we can sign him. we should have got Mata. damn arsenal and their stupid policies. and I think on a striker front: either Soldado or Higauin to replace RVP next season. not as good but the only way we’d get a replacement for RVP is if we sign Messi or Ronaldo.
Ah, Kaka. In our dreams! He’d be a great fit for the Arsenal, but there are so many hurdles to such a transfer that it can’t possibly happen. (Can it?) As for Goetze, I’m not bothered by the fact that he hasn’t won anything. Neither has Ramsey, Arteta, Rosicky, et al. Now that Goetze has had a season-ending injury, he’s got Arsenal written all over him, doesn’t he? Wages would be the only problem there. (Let’s assume we achieve 4th this season.) We simply need a playmaker. Cesc was the man, but he didn’t want to stay. Kaka would be… Read more »
Well ummm……….. Miyachi scored today 🙂
Yep. At least there is something to cheer on this evening, I mean morning, here.
i was pissed off on weds, but today fucked me right off. i can deal with the fact that we havent had a proper back four all season, i can deal with the fact we rarely keep clean sheets, i can deal with the fact that we get more injuries than any other team, but what i cant deal with is the fact that we’ve looked so shit attacking. the one thing im always proud of was the fact that we’re one of the best attacking teams in the league, but now even that is gone.. seriously wtf happened. wheres… Read more »
To be fair, Gervinho did take a player on in the first few minutes. Remember when he ran past Sunderland’s right back and won a corner? Once the Coq went off, we were awful, but we were controlling the game in the first ten minutes and I actually thought we would win. Offense and defense are related. With Squillaci and Djourou in the middle the whole team is shitting themselves. No penetrating runs from the back a la Koscielny or accurate long range distribution from Mertesacker. Just Squillourou moving the ball timidly and slowly back and forth and ultimately back… Read more »
I will disappoint you, but we haven’t played “good attacking football” for YEARS. Even with Nasri and co. we were playing tippy-tappy football without any bite. Slowly passing around, allowing the opposition to regroup, then putting in awful crosses (Sagna).
Of course it is even worse nowadays, so the past seems brighter, but the reality is, we haven’t played pretty football consistantly since about 2007.
Dare I say, since Adebayor left?
This team is probably the worst attacking team we have for sometime…
“…there was nothing. Nothing at all.We were nothing short of a joke.”
Pretty much sums it up for me.
I hope Wenger won’t use the pitch as an excuse. Sunderland players can play on that pitch, why can’t our players? That Segginngo can run as fast as our wingers, too. Stop moaning and treat our players like cry babies. We have technique, but we need toughness!!
Agreed dude. It’s one thing to be indignant about foul play but another thing to bang on about pitches or the weather if both teams have to endure the same conditions. As for foul play, perhaps one way of dealing with it is to tell players to expect it.
Rosicky worh hard !? Do me a favour his positioning was terrible that’s he got fouled ! All round awful.
What kind of position should he be when he intercepted the ball and getting all parts of his body being pulled? Shut up if you didn’t watch the game.
@Jimi. Do you realize he came on when we were chasing the game? And do you realize they were reduced to counters because he dominated the game? More perspective. Do you realize the last 2 games he started we actually won? How can a player with better technique and tactical awareness come on and play with so much heart only to be benched the next game? And if he is awful you’ll rather go with Ramsey, wont you? Are you deluded? Wenger out…wholeheartedly, thats what we all shoudl be saying. Guess I’ll get fewer thumbdowns than I got early season,… Read more »
More signings is not the answers to Arsenal’s problems. There’s a lot of quality players in that squad, including obviously a few of those we have out injured at the moment.
What we need is somebody who can install a determination and winning mentality in the squad to ensure that the best is got out of the players we have. We don’t have that any more, and you can’t just buy that. It’s truly sad times at Arsenal football club.
The ox needs to play on the left side! He isn’t the same when he play on the right.
Lost faith in the team and Arsene. Walcott and a lot more players should be let go come end of season. Built the team around Persie(if he decides to stay). Feel bad for the Ox but terrible of the players not to offer support after the OG
If that is the only response Arsene can get out of this team after Wednesday maybe it is time for him to go..
This is shockin lads.. i can’t see us turning our season around… we’re so one every team knows how to beat us now and in defense we’re like school kids… I just can’t see how Arsene can take us any further… I love the man but wonder how he’s gonna turn this one around…
one dimensional that is….
I am absolutely amazed that, having played Sunderland last week, an knowing the tactics they use, Wenger hasn’t come up with a system or way of playing against them. surely he knew they’d be full of work rate and defensive counter attacking. he is tactically inept.
But As long as we keep posting profits every yr it won’t matter. that’s what it’s all abt. arsenal are a business first, & a football club second. it’s an absolute disgrace the decline we are in.
I am totally sick of this team at the minute.
He very rarely changes his tactics anymore because he “believes” in his players and the way we play, Absolutely fucking absurd if you ask me
It’s time, it really is.
Wenger needs to go.
This Arsene is the same Arsene 10 years ago. This owner is NOT the same owner 10 years ago. Who need to go? The owner asks Arsene to play good cop, bad cop. “We have budget 40 millions” often fools Arsenal Support Union (or whatever it is). Fucking American owners, out!! Fuck Now!
Wenger got older, and got more egoistical – he cannot change. Football has changed, Wenger hasn’t. Simple as that. He needs to start a new project in a new team.
Bring back Dein?
Never thought I’d say this but at least half this squad aren’t fit to wear the shirt…feel sorry for our superb away support,let down in shocking style for the second time in a week,spending their hard earned cash watching a bunch of ‘don’t-give-a-fuck’ prima donas who’ve obviously been told by Wenger that they really are great players.Play like that next week & we’ll be embarrassed far worse than in Milan.