Mikel Arteta has voiced his concern and frustration after Arsenal’s tepid performance at Carrow Road on Saturday evening saw them rolled over 1-0 by Norwich.
The Gunners, who barely created any chances of merit despite controlling possession for much of the game, conceded first for the fifth time this season but couldn’t find the necessary resolve to grind down their determined opponents.
Speaking after the match, the Spanish midfielder lamented to Arsenal.com:
“We’re really down because we expected to win the game. They raised their game, they made it very difficult for us.
“I think we controlled the game, mostly, for 90 minutes. But you go a goal down, you start getting anxious, the goal doesn’t come, it makes it really hard.
“For the amount of ball we had in the game, we should have done more and created more goal situations. We need more patience sometimes.”
“It’s not the first time we have conceded the first goal,” Arteta added. “It’s very difficult.
“If you go ahead, it gives you a lift, the other team has to take risks, and you can cause mistakes. You can’t get back in the game every time you fall behind. It’s a tough ask and we haven’t done it today.
“We have time to come back. But we are down because we know how good we are and how good we can be.”
Arsene Wenger, recognising that his side’s title credentials are already hanging by a thread, has also raised alarm at the ten-point gap which has opened between his ninth placed side and leaders Chelsea.
“The gap is very unpleasant,” Wenger told the Evening Standard. “We had an opportunity that Tottenham could win and we could win, and we both lost. That of course makes the gap a lot bigger.
“You cannot say you do not worry about that, but what is more disappointing is that we could not score. After we went 1-0 down we had the ball for 70 minutes and could not score a goal.”
Disappointment all round then; hardly surprising given Saturday’s performance was as enjoyable as drinking bin juice.
Thankfully there’s no time to wallow in self-pity (or bin juice), a much improved performance is a necessity when Schalke visit the Emirates on Wednesday.
Happy Birthday Arsene.
The team made you sad on your birthday and so are many of us.
I feel for Wenger, I feel dor Arteta, but I wonder… what if Arsene or I dont know Steve or even V5 as captain had shouted and screamed at the players at the team at half time to get their act together, would the performance have still been that? the players really did need a slap in their face, I dont think they got one…
I watched the Man U game and there didnt seem to be any “tiredness” there…
Why did you watch the man u game?
The team invariably reflects the character of the Manager and this Arsenal team(s) has continued to do just that for the last six years. That should tell everyone something. And not necessarily what they want to hear. Compare with Ferguson, who won’t tolerate failure and tells the players as much. Wenger – under no pressure from the Arsenal Board, who defer to him – puts his players under no pressure to deliver. So they repeatedly put in performances like they did against Norwich. His response is to mollycoddle them and say ‘never mind’. So there’s nothing to worry about from… Read more »
and yet wenger has won more trophies than any other arsenal manager, not necessarily something everyone wants to hear
i don’t see a decline like brian clough’s (which was of course alcoholism) so there must be another explanation. the most obvious would be the financial doping of chelsea and more recently man citeh and how that’s changed the landscape.
I think you hit the nail on the head there. Arsene is a classy, sophisticated man, who treats his players like adults, and deep down can not really force himself to act like bacon face or other low IQ managers. He also started being successful at Arsenal when he had mature, competetive players in the side (Bergkamp, Adams, Vieira, Adams etc..) players who knew how to get the job done. But the problem is, beyond football and financial issues, we can see that Over the past 6 to 7 years, our different teams have had a psychological,problem. Either collapsing in… Read more »
@Mannomeck You have made some good points and they potentially deserve the ‘thumbs up’, the seal of approval of blog posts. Unfortunately, however, you rather ruin your post with the statement “He also started being successful at Arsenal when he had mature, competetive players in the side (Bergkamp, Adams, Vieira, Adams etc..) players who knew how to get the job done.” 1) I know I would have loved to clone a copy of Adams myself sometimes (with no disrespect to Keown or Bould), but….. 2) Vieira was 20 when he signed and 21 when we won the double. 3) You… Read more »
AW goes on to say in that article: “It is a good lesson but I would have preferred not to get it, because if you need lessons like that you will stand there at the end of the season and be full of regrets. “We have to face the reality that if you are not completely ready in the Premier League, then you have no chance.” I feel this lesson should be drilled into his players brains on a daily basis! Just because we’ve seen this mentality over the last few years with a few different teams… it’s frustrating, dammit!… Read more »
When AW says the following… “We have to face the reality that if you are not completely ready in the Premier League, then you have no chance.” He’s talking about the game but might as well be talking about the current campaign. Why did we start the season lacking a proper 2nd choice keeper (some may say a 1st choice keeper given how appalling Szczesny was in the Euros and at the beginning of the season) and why did we not invest in a quality striker given the resources we have to hand. I’m sorry but all this shit talk… Read more »
wenger’s taking a dig at the board isn’t he? They didn’t help him with the preparation for this season. Anyway. What’s over is over. We’ll finish 4th this season. and we’ll compete for a cup. It’s okay.
Fuck me, arseblog. For a moment, i thought mikel was injured!
I shitted myself thinking very same thing. He’s the only one this season i can’t imagine the team without.
Also adding my name to the list of people who bricked it reading the article title.
I can see two problems with our team. We cannot play our attacking game when we are facing opposition closing us down and pressuring us all over the pitch. This happened twice, against Chelsea and Norwich and it was very close also against Olympiacos. However, we do not adapt our ways and instead keep losing the ball and passing the ball sloppily and so conceding possession and inviting counter attacks. Also, we have completely lost the organization and the discipline in defending we had for the first few games (till Liverpool). This was one weapon which helped us a lot… Read more »
The team should have atleast scored one on saturday. Especially Gee, When it comes to a one on one situation with the goaler and you’re a striker, i think the other players have pretty much done their job and it’s now up to you to score. Like @Niko said we lack someone who can lift us from utter obscurity, a player who can be just a turd higher than the rest when it comes to taking chance. The dutch skunk was that!, Give him 2 chances he’ll score one or two goals. Example. Arsenal vs liverpool at anfield. He quite… Read more »
We have to be honest & admit that Giroud is nowhere near Van Pussy’s level, and as much as we hate to admit it selling Song was not the brightest idea! But it’s easier said in hindsight. I fear the same will happen if Theo departs. Things will only get better but I’ve been saying that for the last few years & they haven’t got better. The solution is obvious, we just need better players, its not exactly rocket science, is it Professor?!? I honestly don’t know how Wenger can remain so patient, cos it must hurt him just as… Read more »
I think Giroud ‘could’ be an outstanding player for us. Maybe not on the level of the traitor, but then few players are. I just wonder if expecting him to lead the line a la Van Ingrate in his first season in English football is necessarily realistic or fair; it could be counterproductive as it saps his confidence when he doesn’t fire as efficiently as he perhaps should. We need another striker, that should be clear to Arsene just by the numbers, as Giroud is our only out and out CF apparently (what the hell is Chamakh doing in training… Read more »
Wenger knows that we need one more striker and U honestly believe he will go for the Adrian guy from Ateltico madrid he is arsenal type of player and different from giroud very good technically and with pace striker who can take defenders he is 25 he fits the bill his clause is 14 million pounds and all of the media already reported that we will go for him in January some say that we already bid for him and the bid has been accepted.
I can’t believe anyone could feel sorry for wenger, how many times have we been here before, it’s his job to motivate players, I’m astonished people feel for that man, one shot on goal, same old mistakes for years, that is the worst performance I can remember.
Careful mate .. you will be red arrowed on this website ..but i am with you 100% .. We’ve been there and done that .. Only one person to blame in truth !
I’m with you wholeheartedly mate. The gift he gave me for my birthday on 28th August last year was an 8-2 defeat to the Manure, which was totally down to our incompetence or lack of activity in the transfer window. Maybe we can have a laugh now that he won’t have the appetite for chicken and peroni on his own birthday. A friend of mine describes Wenger as ‘a man who beats himself and cries’. Moral of the story, those who have failed to prepare are prepared to fail. In the latter part of the interview he said something like… Read more »
The title is and probably was too ambitious for this new team, as is the champions league. we are clearly in another fight for a top four finish, and you can debate all day long if that’s a good enough ambition for a club of our size and match prices. But what we do clearly need is another goalkeeper in January. Even if its just to give some decent competition and keep,him on his toes. And we need a proven quality frontman to give help to giroud and so that maybe we can have some sort of plan b. hitsory… Read more »
Spot on mate.
I said once the window had shut that the dough we’d taken for VP was no longer good business, after we’d done fuck all with it.
Must admit I had a blind spot with the keeper. But makes a lot of sense to get an older bloke in, not only as reliable back up to SZCZ, but also so he can learn his trade off him.
Still got the right hump this morning after that shower of shit Saturday.
kevin mirallas was meant to be our ‘plan b’ striker if you believed the headlines. He seems to be a different type of front man compared to Giroud.
But look at Chelsea, they sold Drogba and are relying on a guy who isn’t as effective as drogba but the goals are still coming in from everywhere. They can outscore opponents (who aren’t Portuguese or Italian) and shut it down to hold on to a result.
My birthday gift was the norwich game. Had a great day and boom the gunners lost. I hope they beat the shit out of shalke and make up for it
I think the most worrying aspect of that performance was our movement when we had the ball. Of our attacking Cazorla usually is the creator and doesn’t make any runs inside the box. However Gervinho and Podolski rarely made any runs behind their back 4. And less said about Ramsey the better. Thats the one really good thing about Theo’s play.
Sigh. Doom and gloom has me reaching for my meds (again). We have had years in which a string of bad results has ruined our season. What is very, very important is how the boys pick themselves up and right the wrongs. We need a really, really good perfomance the next time out.
After all, wasn’t it that famous football manager Michael Jackson that said “one bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch…”
We have 3-4 results like this every season. Then we have a few defeats where we were unlucky, then we get beaten by the top teams….that’s around 9-10 losses a year. The same every year. We’ll finish 4th again…it’s not rocket science. And they say football is unpredictable!….not where Arsenal are concerned!! If we want things to change…then we need a change of manager. This is Groundhog Day football!
Change of manager isn’t the problem here my friend. It’s all down to consistency, that strive to win titles. This season, it thrives within us, but all of us were wordless regarding the match with Norwich. I most definitely agree with @Adham Khattab that Verm and Gerv need to step up their game, especially Thomas from Ireland. He’s our captain, and no amount of Dutch piece of skunk shit could’ve inspired us more than a passionate centreback commanding and playing like a leader. We’re all down. But even after all the bad times we’ve been through, I think all of… Read more »
Couldn’t care less about champs league, not being pessimistic but I honestly don’t believe we have any chance of winning it, I mean we couldn’t even get a point away to Norwich!!!
Ps: don’t want to hear ‘if Chavski can do it, so can we’
We sold our Drogba & Ramires!
I think the pain of Saturday was only compounded by seeing Mata play well. Fuck. What could have been there.
Although maybe there would be no Santi if Mata had come.
Maybe no Santi if Mata had come? For sure no Santi if Mata had come, Arsenal is not chelsea…
Schalke just beat Dortmund the other day: Yeah dortmund, the german champions, the same team that came to England and nearly white washed manciteh had it not beem for Harts heroics.
Schalke will come to us brimming confidence and unlike us Wenger clearly said we were schoked the other day and if we dont play well this might continue, If we are to beat them we need to fully turn up, we haven’t been that convincing at home mind you. Still optimistic though.
I’m so disgusted at that loss. I have such high hopes for this team. Someone should be fired. Someone must lose their place in the team. There was no winning mentality out their on the pitch. Everyone let the game dictate to them how to play. Our team didn’t even try and run with the ball. If the whole team is standing still, surely you should run with the ball? Surely that is where the quality of a team comes from, what they can do on the ball? We had 10 passers out there. No one with any drive or… Read more »
I would have toed your line too, change of manager is not the answer, simply because some of our players are far below the top class standard needed in a top four team. However, when you realize that Wenger not only bought these boys but stand by them indefinitely, refuses to buy when there is an obvious need to do, then you may come to the conclusion that change of manager might augur well actually. Why? Because the next manager may be willing to buy quality and hence rid us of some appalingly poor one who we can never trust… Read more »
Where are those people who would say “look on the bright side, it’s just a few games, blah blah”
Beware of the fury of the patient fan!
Those guys will be burning Wenger effigy’s if this shit continues!
Yeah, and that we have much better team then the last year, and everybody else are cunts…
I think Wenger is not delusional at all. He knows where we are but he loves the club and loves to challenge with what he has. I think Arteta is much more down cos he won’t be playing at the top level for long and this season is already free from any success for him and his club.
did anyone see the article last week that tickets to the Emirates cost (by far) the most in the Premier League?
I don’t know if it was just arteta’s way of speaking English but he says the team “expected” to win.
I think the problem lies right there.
I think they need to pay the fans back now with a 6-0 drubbing of schalke for starters. And then pay back the money paid by the travelling fans that had to endure the farce that occured at carrow road.
I think the problem lies in Arteta’s other comment “we need to be more patient”. What?! Waiting until the 84th minute for our first shot in anger is being impatient? Passing the ball around with the same intensity as a stoner on a beach is being impatient? Now that comment frightened me. Anyone remember the good old days when we flew at the opposition and went 3-0 up in less than 20 minutes and then relaxed and became patient then? (drifts off into dream sequence….) Vieira though to Pires who has found space, Ljungberg is bursting down the right, he… Read more »
In the good old days, there were no Abramovic, there were no Glazers nor Sheikhs, all i am saying is that it is tougher to build a winning team with so many big spenders around.
that was probably the worst performance I’ve watched in a long long time from our Arsenal. they showed once again that possession can mean absolutely nothing unless you do something with it and create chances. way too often in that game players who were on the ball would have yards of space in front of them, and instead of running at the defenders and drawing them towards the ball creating space for team mates to get into goal scoring positions, they would just pass it sideways while everyone just stood and watched. too many passengers way too often for us,… Read more »
I don’t want to be a Ramsey basher but I would love to see a statistic of what percentage games we have won where he has started in the past 2 seasons.
Statistic is bad cos when he plays we are playing with 10 and a half men.
Last season we won 12 out of the 27 Premier League games he started, this season it’s 1 out of 4 (away at West Ham). Looking closer at his PL stats gives this: he started in 9 of our 10 losses last season, and started in 6 of our 7 draws, while he was only there for 12 of our 21 wins. PL win percentage cum Ramsey in the starting lineup last season: 44%, sine Ramsey: 82%. This season: with: 25%, w/o: 50%. I got his starts from here: http://guardian.touch-line.com/?Lang=0&mTEID=217&Season=2011%20-%202012&CTID=11&CPID=4&TEID=217&RFID=&PLID=203182&pStr=Match_List&t=2&ListType=6 I like Ramsey and wish him to do well, unfortunately… Read more »
Wow thankyou. Those statistics really speak for itself. I noticed last season as soon as rosicky replaced Ramsey our results and fortune changed. This season, as soon as diaby got injured, results have swung the other way. Like I said I don’t want to be a Ramsey basher but I honestly don’t think he is good enough to be part of a competitive midfield. It seems that whenever he is in the middle there is no penetration and the ball goes from side to aide for 90 minutes
I also think that statistic would be far more worrying if we take it as far back as the last season where fabregas was with us. Where he missed the most of the end of the season and Ramsey came in… I think we went on a shocking run of form then too bar his goal against united.
Two consistent themes since Saturday are Gervinho needs to step up his game and we need a striker.
What happened in the games this season when he was played in the middle? He scored consistently.
Then he is moved back out on the wing and he returns to “same old Gervinho”.
Seems obvious what to do in the short term (at least until January or until it is shown not to work).
Same old, same old… The season starts and we are full of hope and expectation, but gradually we realise we are just not good enough, selling one or two of our best players and trying to rebuild every year…it’s shit…
I am surprised Arsene puts up with it…cause it no doubt hurts him just as much as us, he should come out and say whats going on behind the scenes with transfer kitty, wage structure etc … it’s bollocks !!!!
One thing is certain, we didn’t lose due to poor goal keeping, not closing down the Norwich player for the shot, Santos playing Holt onside. Anyone that blames our defeat on any of these is shortsighted or doesn’t have high expectations for this team. For crying out loud, we went behind away from home against City and West Ham. These are better teams than Norwich, even if they packed the bus. Please don’t forget that teams that Arsenal is competing with in the league went behind this weekend but came out and won their games. One did it with 10… Read more »
So true, very very good point. We indeed didn’t lose the game because we conceded 1 goal away ( this happens all the time to any teams in any leagues ) and people blaming Manone above everything else for me are just stupid. We lost this game tactically. Our game was so predictable and Norwich in fact did a very good job in shutting us down. I honestly don’t blame the players for this game, I blame Arsene. By half time it was clear to mesomething should be changed ( maybe changing to a 4 4 2 , with both… Read more »
That was one of the most embarrassing performances I’ve seen in years. The team may well have been knackered by the midweek play, but they just looked like they couldn’t be arsed. Most of them were just walking around on the pitch, whereas Norwich looked like they had a bit of fire up their arses (even if they played like Stoke/dirty chavs). The start of our season our defence looked brilliant – remember the praise in the press about how wonderful Bould had been with the defence – what has happened to it lately? Mertersacker was back to how he… Read more »
Defensively the team is much more improved, that’s undeniable. We only conceded 6 goals so far and that puts us equal with Chelsea as the best defense in the premier league.
You can’t expect clean sheets for every game, the defense so far is good enough and Manone -even if he’s not world class- has done a decent job. Mistakes happens from time to time. Conceding 1 away goal is not what lost us the game on Saturday but the inability to come back and score a couple of goals to win us this game.
Laurent koscielny- man city, about 4 weeks back
Well another season of disappointment due to us sticking to this road to nowhere break even plan… No point blaming the goal keeper… We allowed our best striker, europes best striker to go to man utd of all clubs so we could get some more cash for our pot-o-gold … He should of been made stay and play… I think we’ve given arsene enough time to try win with younger players and it just hasn’t worked so really in all fairness for the clubs sake it’s time wenger and the board went. Bring in someone like pep and give him… Read more »
Dont agree with you at all. Wengers done a complete U-turn on that policy by bringing in experienced players, which has worked. Yes Van Persie leaving was pathetic, but i will wait and reserve my judgement until January. I was the first person yelling abuse when we didnt sign another striker in the window, but generally there havent been too many quality strikers purchased this season has there? Michu? Kone? i would say they are the stand outs which says alot …………. if they are not available, then they are not available. But there is zero excuse for not signing… Read more »
Yeah, but the trouble was that most Gooners were saying that the ‘youth experiment’ was crap and not working but Wenger was being stubborn and persisted with it for years when clearly everybody could see that it wasn’t working (except to provide a development creche to sell them off to other teams). If the youth experiment was so good, why did no other team do it before or since?
My initial conclusion from reading the headline was “FUCK he’s injured”
So glad I was wrong haha
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Someone rightly pointed out the fact that we never score from corners so why even bother taking them,when was the last time we scored a goal from a corner?It is shocking that a team that plays football can’t score from corners at all.Even the worst team in the Epl score more goals from set pieces.Can anyone provide arsenals corner stats for past two season and the current.