It would be fair to say that Arsenal’s last four results have gone some way to restoring confidence to the team, and to the fans.
Impressive spankings of Sp*rs and Milan, an away win at Anfield (Liverpool’s only home league defeat of the season), and the late great Vermaelen winner against Newcastle have helped ease the pain of the two cup defeats against Milan and Sunderland.
But you don’t have to go back too far to see far too many Ls mixed in with the recent Ws, and captain Robin van Persie believes his team still has much to prove.
“After the two defeats to Milan and Sunderland, everyone was like ‘this is going to be a tough couple of weeks’ because we had games against Spurs, Liverpool, Milan and an international week and then Newcastle,” he said. “Yet we won every game, so we showed lots of character. We can be proud of that.
“Now we need to show that over a period of a whole year. That is very hard and only the best of the best teams have that in them. Look at Barcelona for example. They have a special team there, they are playing most games – 9 out of 10 – really well and working hard. We need to have a run like that for months and even win the ugly games.”
It’s encouraging to hear that nobody is resting on laurels after some high profile, high excitement victories, and that there’s an awareness the hard work that brought them about needs to continue. The skipper is confident they have the quality to do it too.
“We showed signs that we can do it because against Liverpool we didn’t play well but still nicked it. Sometimes it is necessary to win those games. We came from behind in the past four games and ended up winning the game.
“That shows we can do it, not only once or twice or three times, but lots of times. So why not show it 20 times or whenever it is needed?”
Captain Vantastic leading by example.
They have consistent , they just need to be consistently consistent . If we get more than 25 Points in the remaining matches , I think we can call ourselves favourites for next season League title.
Just have to keep the best players
Okay lets wait to see what happens in the summer before proclaiming us favorites for the title.
difficult to predict what will happen over the summer
personally i fancy us to beat the south africans, but it’s likely to be a close run thing
Keeping our best players alone is like Buying loads of players.
We NEVER have continuity , they always rebuild the squad
With how competitve Wenger manages to keep us, imagine if we had kept all our best players instead of them leaving for “trophies” or money as i call it….
“Keeping our best players alone is like
Buying loads of players.”
Yes, makes perfect sense in Arsene-world. Every time we don’t lose a good player it’s a LANS.
(Before you thumbs down, this is not meant to be a knock on AW, but rather a sad reflection on our recent transfer policy.)
Nothing wrong with being optimistic though. Even if we do, as usual, need significant investment in the transfer market.
For ‘Vans’ to want consistency clearly shows he has his heart at Arsenal…COYG, dats d spirit!
Oh i love you Robin, marry me and have my children! (Adoption of coarse)
Have you not seen the 1994 Arnold Swarchenegger film ‘Junior’?
For sure, it’s a futon…
It’s great to hear /read RvP saying this. Does this mean our captain wants to stay or is he just geeing things up for the remaining matches ? I like to think it means he wans to stay next season and bring through the talent he can see there but I am reading it as a challenge to the team to show him they are worth it. I mean that in a positive way rather than an arrogant ‘ screw you ‘ kind of way. He clearly loves the club and I and everyone else love him back but he… Read more »
RvP is, as usual, dead right. The lack of consistency has badly hurt us this season. We’ve had some brilliant performances and results, but also some dire and pathetic ones too. It’s great to be finishing the season strongly rather than our usual spring collapse. But it’s vital that we keep it up: Chelsea, with their new manager, John Terry, have definitely improved and will push us all the way until the end of the campaign. And Spurs have a very easy run-in which, unless they really fall apart, will probably ensure them third. It’s a shame that we had… Read more »
” Chelsea, with their new manager, John Terry, ”
Hehe, too true. Who did he think he was against Napoli ? No other team would tolerate that behaviour by a player behind their managers back in full view of the cameras and crowd.
Anyway, I think our match against them may well prove to be THE six-pointer, I am a little concerned about our game with Man City, though. It’s a team I would have prefered to have avoided in ther run-in.
i’d agree with much of that
personally i think fit full backs is key to a successful run in – january’s skidmark of a month being largely down to the weird shape of the team brought on by 4 centre backs and all that meant for width/crosses/covering etc
AW in January at start of transfer window: “It would be stupid to drop points because we don’t have any fit fullbacks.”
Lets hope he learns from his last season summer mess this year and do his signing early instead of trying to be penny pinching while charging the highest ticket prices any where. Also, Arsene has to address this http://www.debatabledecisions.com/tables with the FA as it is going beyond ridiculous. Last year we lost 9 points and the title because of the Refs decisions. Now, this year we already lost 6 points as a result, we are the worst team in the league for the last 5 years that decision goes against and we keep quiet about it, we make it easy… Read more »
I’m sick of what decisions go for/against, and the bias in the media from all those who want to polish Fergie’s knob.
I’d been thinking its because we don’t pay the right people, but it’s a good point about making it easy for them.
BTW, last time I looked at the decision table, they had even missed out several penalty appeals that weren’t made / given, so that 6 points is probably even worse! Or maybe I’m just biased.. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell.
to be fair RvP had a word with Mike Dean after about 20 minutes of the Spuds game after which Dean swapped sides for a bit. It was quite remarkable
Don’t rule out 2nd yet with the arabs from middle eastlands imminent collapse!
BTW, Did you know that “Etihad” is an Arabic word that means “United” Hilarious.
Marry me, RVP. I’m yours forever.
If we can keep it up until summer add some quality in the team, we cn count ourselfs among the contenders and end our silverware drought. Jus lv this club the red in ma blood & white my eyes. Gooner 4 lyf
We should now target Citeh in the league. I’m convinced making up the gap to the Spuds gave the team a tangible target to aim for.
We likely won’t catch Citeh but we’ll ride away from the Spuds.
They’re already wobbling like a fat kid on a trampoline, so they’re there for the taking and 3rd, at least, will be ours.
also, we will have to finish third if chelski do the unthinkable and win the champs league as they will then take the fourth english spot for next season…
Lol @ billywhizz!!!
If you think Chelsea can win the champs lge, then you have no clue!
Greece won the Euro’s against the odds (odds of 150-1) Glory, so not sure why you’re insulting Billy for stating a fact.
I mean, Porto won the Champions league as underdogs and as it’s a cup competition, anything can happen (think Chelsea v Barcelona with the 4 million penalties turned down, or van Persie being sent off while we were winning)
is very hard to find any consistency when you have players out injured all the time. we’ve shown that when most of our first XI are available we can put good runs together. what we really need is a different way of playing when we don’t have everyone fit and in form. barca do well because they work their socks off when they don’t have the ball. if we want to win something we will have to do that too. the best arsenal teams always pressed well and hunted in packs. i think we’ll be in good shape next season… Read more »
In fairness to our competitors, Man U also went through a huge injury crisis this year but weathered it pretty well.
I will now gouge out my eyes.
Are we really the only team to beat liverpool at anfield so far this season AFTER 28 GAMES? And the newspapers, pundits, soccer shows et al… “coincidentaly forgot” to mention this??? Trust me, had it been manure or spuds then it would’ve been headlines and we would be constantly reminded until the end of the season.
Forgot about the media in this country, they are the cause of England failure as they idiolise player like K Davis, C Admas and the likes,
Here another thing for you the media never says…
Not only we are the only team to go a whole season unbeaten but also the ONLY team in history to go two seasons unbeaten away from home!!!!!!!!!
Probably the best skipper we’ve had after Cesc and cunt Gallas.
what? after cunt Gallas? are you saying cunt Gallas was a better skipper than RVP, or Tony Adams for that matter? Are You completely crazy????!!!!
I *think* he means Cesc and Gallas were no good so it’s great to have Robin.
Otherwise, he definitely puts the mental in ‘mental strength’
he’s mental alright!
I think he’s/she’s worded it badly. I think he/she means RVP’s the best captain we’ve had, especially after having Cesc (some questioned his leadership skills) and Gallas (being totally shit).
Probably too young to remember Adams (the best ever in my opinion) or Vieira, for that matter.
P.S. RVP is so staying. I’m totally convinced now. He needs to break the captain curse for us. I’m sick of our captains getting stolen all the time.
Sorry my bad, worded it poorly. I meant RVP is one of the best skippers we’ve had in a while as Gallas was a cunt and Cesc clearly did not have that captain material in him even though he was a great player. and yes I do remember Paddy and Tony and RVP is as good as them.
Not quite sure i agree that Robin is as good a captain as Big Tony (agree with Merlin, our best ever captain) but he is definitely a good captain. One season doesn’t make a captain and it’s probably been made easier due to only having the league to fight for. I’m not knocking him as a player but i personally don’t think strikers make the best captains. Someone in Songs position (but not Song) is probably the best place in this day and age. Vieira was great at rallying the troops while we fought on all fronts, same as Adams… Read more »
or the Verminator?
Half the time Viera was at Arse he wanted to leave for this club and that club. Im glad we no longer dont have anymore primma donnas in the team. Makes the whole celebration after scoring last minute goals sweeter, you can see a genuine afftection for the jersey, gone are the days of installing a captain so he wouldnt leave the club..for all the luv henrys showing the club now, i seriously believed he felt he was bigger than the club before. Well thats how i remembered it anyways.
I think verminator can make a good captain
Can’t wait for Jack to be captain!
What about the pole in the goal
Too many captains in the ship?
As long as the boys don’t get complacent, we have a good shot at claiming 3rd place, which by no means is a small achievement. We now are at a stage where we have committed players with great talent and genuine love for the club. RvP’s a class act. Deserves his brilliant run this season. Hopefully some silverware will be coming his way in the seasons to come…hope he stays…
I believe the skipper would immortalise his status @ arsenal…He must stay!!#Goonerific
[…] Persie is looking for more consistency from the team. He praised the wins in the last four games, but said: Now we need to show that over a period of a whole year. That is very hard and only the best of the […]
Great attitude from the Captain Vantastic. I would love to see us being less wasteful in scoring goals!
[…] Robin’s words earlier in the week about the need for consistency it’s good that the focus is not on what we’ve done, or […]
[…] this is hardly unfamiliar territory. A few weeks ago Robin van Persie spoke about the winning run and said: Now we need to show that over a period of a whole year. That is very hard and only the best of the […]