Wojciech Szczesny’s return to first team action has so far garnered a big win over Spurs and consecutive clean sheets against Montpellier and Aston Villa. It’s not a shabby return, but the Pole in goal has set his sights on a return to winning ways against Everton after Saturday evening’s frustrating draw in the Midlands.
Reflecting on a busy week between the sticks, the 22-year-old shot stopper was in bullish mood as the Gunners prepare for Wednesday’s trip to Goodison Park.
“It will be a six-pointer,” Szczesny told Arsenal.com. “It will be a very good game for us to win. We managed to get three points last year and it was a really tough match.
“We are outside the top four so our first target is to reach that top four. But our ambitions are much higher than that.
“We have managed to get a couple of good results recently. It would have been good if we had won on Saturday but we shall take it game by game and hope for the best. We need to climb the table and hopefully do well in the other competitions as well.
“I think the last two matches against Tottenham and Montpellier, offensively we have played really well. We have had a few disappointing performances before that, so it’s important we get back to that level and I think we are in a good position to do so.”
Everton have been in good form making a decent start to the season for the first time in living memory. Last year an early header from Thomas Vermaelen was enough to down the Toffees, although we were lucky to escape with all three points after the home side had a goal chalked off for offside when it most clearly was not.
Although it’s likely to be another tight affair on Wednesday it remains to be seen whether Jack Wilshere features, particularly now the boss has admitted the young midfielder has suffered from swelling on his troublesome ankle.
“He had a little inflammation but I think the rest will help him to get rid of it,” clarified the boss on Saturday evening.
“Apart from that, he’s done very well. He’s not played for 17 months, people forget what that means – it’s massive. I’m very happy with the way he progresses.”
A six pointer with Everton,oh the shame!
I remember a few seasons back. We started the season off against them.We dominated 6 – 1. There were a few United supporters at a party that night. They told me that Everton were just a small team. Now they are our rivals. I remember the times when it was an Arsenal Vs United game. No one knew which way it would go… The two biggest teams of the league. Now we get to look forward to our little minnow rival clashes. The future looks really exciting though for us with the new revenue streams. I always thought fighting relegation… Read more »
RVP for years???
Yes. He will retire with them.
A smug little red devil c*nt with many trophies to his name.
I don’t agree with the thumbs down to your comment. I’d say Gilberto was one of the players that we really failed to keep hold of, a player that wanted to stay and even travelled to the World Cup with the Brazil team two years later. Quality despite his age, it was not as though he was defined by his pace.
It’s good to be thumbed down for a comment like that. It is a litmus test to show that there is still faith in the club! Yeah, Gilberto was a great player. He did what Arteta does naturally. Nothing wrong with keeping him in the squad. 4-4-2 days 🙂 He left and we still had Flamini. Then Flamini left… What Flamini and Fabregas would have achieved if they played together for 8 years … Would destroy any team in the world. Now Fabregas is waiting on the fringes for a spot in the Barca team and Flamini is done. See,… Read more »
that is true, but the board won´t spend any money in the january transfer, thats their policy spend as little as possible and aim for a 4th place, so that the team can play champions league and make profits on the fans buying tickets
You heard the man, it’s all over let’s all just give up and go home.
No shame here, They’re the new Liverpool of Liverpool, at least we’re still the Arsenal of North London.
Oh yes,I never taught of it like that.
Arsenal themselves are their own enemy. We can choose to brush everton aside or we can choose to be not turn up and recieve a spanking. Is it too much to ask for consistency?.
Why?
Why?…..*sob.
Please Arsene, add to the bench in january ! We have classy first team players but they cannot manage 3 games a week…
I’d like all arsenal players to just shut up and do the talking on the pitch! They talk too much. Pissed with this topsy-turvy patches
Easier said that done son! Contain fellaini, jelavic, mirallas, we should be fine. Smash and grab lads!
Beautiful chip over the defence by Santi. Lukas podolski hits it on the volley. Goallllll. Nostalgic??
defense
I think it was Giroud with the awesome chip
Last year in the same game it was Song with the Chip and van cuntie with the volley. Was talking about that
I know the club are going to players looking for quotes etc. But I really wish Sczc would kep his mouth shut. He’s always full of the ‘let’s do it!!’ crap and then we go and do fuck all.
I’m probably being unfair here, but fuck it. Nothing sandpapers my tits more than players talking a great game and playing a shit one.
I know what my boss would do to me if I carried on like that!!
Szcz last season said we’d finish above sp*rs , when we were lots of points behind them .
He also said he was going to take the Euros by storm.
If we produce a good performance against Everton and come away with the 3 points, I’ll eat my shit with a rustty spoon.
he tried… I don’t blame him for the penalty , any crazy keepers would have done that . Mad Jens must have been proud
@Martin Keown is my hero : Remove Keown’s name from your’s before you claim to eat shit and what not
What exactly do you want him to say?? “I think we’re going to lose this one to be honest, I don’t really have much hope.”
Yep! Spot on, I’ll be happy with a point, a victory is unlikely!
Not with this team anyway.
I don’t want him to say anything. I want him and his team mates to go out on the ptich and give it everything they have.
As I said, I know the club are after quotes etc. Actually, maybe he should come out and speak the truth. What’s the point in talking bullshit? Does it convince you? Do you feel better? Does it help you get over shit performances? Sure, let’s pretend all is rosey.
Arsene has mismanaged Jacks return. Giroud, Arteta, Podolski and Cazorla are knackered. The Ox is maybe becoming the Ego. Ramsey is not good enough to start. Theo is leaving. Charmuk is staying. Diaby is finished. Half the time no-one can be bothered. When the chips are down Arsene get arrogant. And the board squirrel away another £150mil. All fun and games down the Arsenal eh.
can we go a full day without mentioning the words ‘board’ and ‘kroenke’ ? is it possible
No, because it is the problem at hand.
I just hope the board wins all 3 points vs Everton
With Kroenke scoring the winner?
What do you want to talk about “Master”? How great team we have? How we are already 10 points behind! How we have to be positive when Arsenal is facing Everton and if you ask me it will be really hard. At the moment we are at their level. I am very mad cos of that.
When will all these stop? Like blogs said in today’s blog post, “Arsene is stubborn, intransigent and frustrating” I wonder how we can deal with a manager like that?
If only he could see all the bad sides we all see about the team….!
Being stubborn is actually one of his top qualities
Yeah, great quality playing Ramsey from the start… peace of magic! What? We don’t have anybody else?
WHY???????
I guess Arsene will try to mentally impact the adverse side by some declaration like : “I actually love Fellaini, he is a top midfielder and our players will need to make sure he is not afforded any freedom…”. Hey Arsene, I know you are the best, so why not ask Arteta to convince him to join us ?
I wish we had Fellaini, but Wenger will probably mismanage him by playing him every single game, or out on the wing.
Can we sign David Moyes instead?
Didn’t Everton have to get an injunction to stop some tabloid from releasing photos they snapped of Fellaini taking a shit next to Arteta’s car (back when Arteta was at Everton)? Maybe they don’t get along…
(Of course that rumor could be total… crap…)
Or they could be best mates and it was a joke.
what about a rest for Santi at some point, with Rosicky coming back. Saturday maybe?
No, Wenger never played LANS from the start. Let’s hope for the last 20 minutes cos I’m afraid we will need an extra push which we lacked against Villa. Hope Walcott&Sagna&Wilshere will play also.
Wenger, Gazidis and the board have no excuses for spending money on the squad now with healthy revenue coming in from the shirt sponsorship and the kit sponsorship next year. We’ve been waiting for this moment for 8 years. Whilst other teams are being forced to be more prudent because of FFP, we’ve disciplined ourselves to spend within our means and prioritise paying off the stadium (in a recession). The club is in a healthy position, now is the time to capitalise on our advantage and translate it to the pitch.
Can’t help it, but it feels like wishful thinking
We will spend alright….if we find some ‘exceptional quality’……
I can´t help but remember all the positive comments here after the Liverpool game when Diaby was the king of the world and Santi was beyond Xavi. At the same time a lot of our injured players was coming back and everything was a magical landscape of ice cream and RvP corpses. Ppl here on arseblog was litterally going insane because there was nothing to bitch and moan about. To be honest, I actually prefer Arsenal sometimes beeing shit and have players/managers talk to much because I love all the dramatics 😉 Arsenal is never boring (only when the play… Read more »
While i am frustrated this week, like most other gunners I find the level of outcry on the net etc a bit peculiar (in terms of post Villa game). It does nt take much for extreme negativity to come to the fore these days which really does nt help. We started the season to two 0-0’s and a further clean sheet at L’pool which was generally met with heightened optimism. Then after conceding 14 goals in 5 games we have subsequently kept two clean sheets- yet many people going nuts after Saturdays game. Although there were many negatives I think… Read more »
Villa were certainly committed and the weather was wet and windy, but Villa are young inexperienced team struggling just above the relagation zone. If we are to have any top 4 ambitions we should be attempting more than 1 shot on target and looking to win the game. As blogs says, we have Giroud in attack and no forward fit to be called a forward to come on for him. Our first team is ok with a sprinkling of world class players. Our squad as a whole is average with a sprinkling of players who are simply not good enough… Read more »
We did attempt more than 1 shot on target. unfortunately they all missed.
A lack of back up in the striker department is a big problem but cant do anything about that at present.
I don’t see getting top 4 a major problem. Unfortunately don’t see us getting any higher.
finally- no team has a right/can count on always making champ league so if we make it great. If not then at least extra 25m sponsorship means finance stay as they are and not worse than previously.
Getting back to the game rather than the same old problems being rehashed over and over again . . .
. . . given that Arteta has been pretty much shut out of the game by a few teams this season, and that Arteta is well known to Moyes and Everton, how is Wenger going to change things to make one of our favourite Spaniards as effective as possible on Wednesday ?
Will our central pairing in defence be able to cope with Felani ?
These are questions without agenda. I am more concerned with them closing Arteta though.
Especially when he’s wiped out from playing 90 minutes every single game all season long… Then again, Arteta seems to have a smart footballing mind… hopefully he can help Arsene formulate a good strategy for countering Fellaini and co.
I think koss and mert should be able to handle fellaini. If Arsene does what I fear he will do and plays vermaelin for koscielny, we’re in a world of trouble.
As far as the arteta thing, get real mate. We don’t change our system for anyone. He will be struggling again at dm, with his only outlet being a backpass to mert. Where the fuck is Alex song?
Sitting on a bench?
Exactly.
We shouldn’t hear a fn word from any player until they put in a proper days work. Talk all you want after a well fought point from Citeh, but don’t big-up the team after such a shite performance and a lazy point from Villa. Focus on your fn training!
Makes me wonder what the players do at training. With so many shots off target from so many players
Sad to see what Arsenal has become of late.
It seems some players predicted this and chose to leave
The training pics on the website always show them laughing and having a good ol’ time…I hope the coach wipes the smiles off their faces with some wind sprints til they puke. Maybe then they’ll step up come game day. They are playing with a cannon on their shirts and should show the commitment it deserves. Give them some tough love Wenger!
Good to have positive players like Szcz. But he will have a hard time with Everton.
Hope we will score more goals then them.
In Szcz we trust!
Two points:
1. For all those saying we’ll be grand and get 4th no problem…..the table does not lie. Results do not lie. We are in a scrap for 4th. The ‘next week we’ll do better’ approach will not work.
2. Fellaini is an overrated Bombay shitehawk. Lets not get carried away with ourselves.
Shit me dead, I hate to think what I’d be reading if we had lost the Villa game.
[…] been talking about tomorrow night’s game too and says: It will be a six-pointer. It will be a very good game for us to win. We managed to […]
[…] been talking about tomorrow night’s game too and says: It will be a six-pointer. It will be a very good game for us to win. We managed to […]