Thursday, March 28, 2024

Walcott and Arteta react to Schalke draw

Theo Walcott, looking and sounding very ill, and Mikel Arteta, looking gorgeously lego-haired, spoke to Sky Sports after this evening’s frustrating 2-2 draw away in Germany.

Here’s that they had to say.

Arteta on the result…

“Considering we were two-nil up the result is not good for us. We had a last chance at the end with Theo, but we were unlucky to concede the first one a minute before half-time. Before the game a draw here? It’s not an easy place to come.”

Arteta on conceding before half-time…

“Yes [it was a hammer blow] because it was a completely different game. They would have had to start coming at us earlier in the second half and we could break. That happened [Huntelaar’s goal], it was another little mistake, but we’ll take the point.

“It was tough, they put a lot of pressure on us and I think we played a bit deep in the second half. I think when we broke we had some chances to score and we got the draw.”

Walcott on his last gasp chance…

“I did all I could to be honest. The ball got stuck between my feet and I couldn’t ge it out. It’s just one of those things, but it’s a a good point in the end.”

Walcott on the result…

“It would have been a fantastic victory, you know Schalke dominated the second half but defensively we were quite strong. We would have been happy with a point at the start of the game.”

Walcott on whether he’s been frustrated on the bench…

“Yeah of course, I just want to play that’s the main thing and hopefully I can get a run in the team because I think I fully deserve it. I just want to play for this team and hopefully this team can win the Premier League this year.”

Walcott on whether he’s benched because of his contract situation…

“You’ll have to ask the manager that question, I can’t answer that.”

Walcott on the remaining challenge…

“We’ll just try and win our last couple of games and that’s all we can do. If we do that we get into the next round.”

 

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Runcorn Gooner

Were was Vermaelen

DCGooner

I hope with his head in his hands in the changing room. The man has been waaayyyy off the pace for a while now. I hope he gets it together soon.

Vlad

I reckon he did quite well today at LB. Definitely better defensively than Santos in the past couple of matches.

Lee

Reports have it he travelled to the moon for a quick soda…..pfftt….where do you think he was?.

Lad

Ehe hehe.

UndercoverMancGooner

Still thought he looked a bit safer than Santos.

austingooner

To be fair, who wouldn’t?

Fatgooner

Where was your “h”? And your question mark?

Brian Mendoza

At this point you’d be forgiven for thinking Arteta was the captain, it’s always him after a match giving reactions.

Also, I’ll take a draw away to the toughest side in the group, onwards and upwards!

433

Schalke’s front 3, especially Farfan and Huntelaar, look great. They scared me pretty much every time they attacked over both legs. They’re probably better than our front 3 (just, with Walcott in there – with Ramsey, then by a stretch).

goontang

I dont blame you. their movement and quick passing was fantastic. Something you ussually associate with the arsenal. Until recently…….

But a point away to Shalke is not a bad result lets all be honest. We are still in a good position to qualify from the group and thats all that should matter. More importantly we need to make sure we are there next year so we need to focus on 3 points this weekend.

Top- Quality

FFS we have a top quality squad. Ramey is top quality. Podolski and Giroud are ‘top-quality’. Santos is a top quality Left back. Mannone is a top quality keeper.

Anybody noticed yet why we’re struggling this season?
In the past we had- Nasri, Van Persie and Fabregas. Thye were clearly too low quality for us to u\keep hold of them and pay them.

FFS Arsenal. Sort this shit out. Enough.
We haven’t player well since the 6-1 against Saints.

neutral

I thought holtby looked quite good as well

diefenbaker

Geez this Shalke team reminded me of the Arsenal of old. Very good at the passing game and very wasteful to be honest, everyones talking about how we could’ve have nicked it, luckily Shalke didnt make the most of their chances they had.

Jim Jimminy

I think he should have passed that last chance off to his left for Giroud to tap in. Unless i’m remembering it completely differently.

austingooner

You are correct in your recollections, sir!

433

Easy to spot watching from the side, or on the telly – I could see it ending in an offside violation. The shot was worth it, he should have picked out the far post corner.

pigsinspace

we’re just not good enough… over the past few years we’ve succeeded in selling the best of our team for money…. thats all they’re interested in now… money…
7+ years of frustration….just get to the next round and get the payment after that who cares…. well frankly Mr Kronke… we do…

Anon

sometimes i wonder… is your shift button broken… is you caps lock broken… does your enter key work more than once… do you have a mental disease that causes you to impulsively write ellipses everytime… you do…

pigsinspace

keyboard…..tourettes…

dboy

What the f&*K does all your questions have to do with football?

Chair

And Arteta the one speaking to press again, with Vermaelen nowhere in sight again, possibly because he made a stupid mistake again.
Deja Vu

R18

One way or another the captaincy seems to have made vermaelen an incapable defender.
Seems he wants to push himself the extra mile and in turn is more prone to mistakes, and often bad judgements.

433

He was a big step up from Santos.

andy

he’s been shit for quite a while now. don’t think it has anything to do with the captaincy. sagna or arteta should be captain. can’t understand why arsene keeps picking the wrong guys for that job…

Saurabh

Looks like Arteta is given the role of acting captain..

austingooner

And that’s why you give the captaincy to your most consistent performer — Mikel Arteta. Plays 90 minutes of almost every single game all season long, and never gets subbed off. Arteta is overworked and underappreciated.

Der Springer

I think Arsenal fans appreciate him just fine. He is under appreciated by those who don’t follow Arsenal and, most unfortunately, by Vicente del Bosque. Arteta deserves a cap.

goonorhea

Not to mention the “pundits” . I couldn’t believe my ears when they went on about how he’s not as good as he was last year and he’s not doing a good job of anchoring the midfield. I switched off the tele when they said Per was the weak link in the defence, the same pace thing. How are they on TV ? Why would anybody pay them ?

AP

I think it is a masterstroke to make Arteta the deputy captain to counter the curse of selling the captain so often. We definitely cannot afford to lose Arteta now. And if that helps keep him, I am all for it!

Nanu

“I just want to play
for this team and hopefully this
team can win the Premier
League this year.”
Now that’s a statement

Jim Jimminy

And at this point, a wild one.

Hope he’s right

Lapidarij

Im afraid this statement means nothing. He is still far away from extending with us. Sad.

433

Walcott is definitely one of our best players, I think. He’s probably doing enough to get an improved contract offer. It would be good business to keep him.

I don’t know – player wages are obscenely high – but Walcott does look good enough to bend the wage structure.

austingooner

See, I think he’s good, but not THAT good. Would rather sell him and bring in a proven striker/winger who fits our wage structure. Let’s be serious — if we sell Walcott, there’s no way we’re not buying a replacement. In this case, I don’t even think Arsene and the board are crazy enough to just take the money and run. That’s why I think Arsene has been saying we will know by January… Just hope the replacement is worthy.

Glory Hunter

To Austin Gooner:
Are you willing to put a wager on it?

And even if we bought a replacement for Theo, recent history tells us it’ll be a cheaper, Shittier version!

JustAnotherMong

Wenger won’t replace Walcott when he goes! He will point to The Ox! Come on, Wenger hardly ever banks on a tried and tested player when he can gamble with an unproven youngster!!!

Lad

^^^.

This is total bellendy bollocks to me. It’s not about how good he is to keep him but it’s about keeping our best players (okay not best but you get it). No matter how bad he can sometimes get I think it would be good for us to hang on to him. We need to be taken more seriously and not let the board sell whomever they please.

neutral

sounds like PR gone wild to me, over the top and can’t believe he kept a straight face, did he?

MyArsenalView

I just have to say one thing about the ref: Useless s**y wa**er, who f*c*ing ruined the game by making horrible decisions.

e.g Podolski’s yellow and what shouldv’e been a penalty for the challenge on Walcott.

Yes we should have done this and that. But f*ck me that was one of the dumbest refs I’ve ever seen.

Rant over.

Anon

Don’t forget stopping play that was incredibly favourable for Arsenal for a prat who fell over and injured his own fucking leg to no fault of any other than the fucking guy himself.

GarmentDistrict

Colour me dumb but what’s the censored word s**y? Racking my brain, can’t figure it out. Fully agree by the way!

MyArsenalView

missed a star( S***y)! I figured since I was still censoring curse words, might aswell get all of them. People raise their children in different ways and tolerate different levels of communication. Personally, I’d just write the curse words, but I’m trying to be respectful to fellow gooners.

Anon

“and hopefully this team can win the Premier League this year.”

Wow, what a positive thinker. Sign him up Arsene.

gooner in Manchester

Arteta could not get the words out.
Walcott was talking nonsense.

one was shell-shocked and one having his mind elsewhere.
Dreaded to see.

pigsinspace

suppose we’ll be blaming the pitch next….

pigsinspace

alright ok the ref then…

Lad

“Pigsinspace”

I think this pig here does not need space it needs to be taught the art of shutting the hell up!.

RedandWhiteStar

A point away at Schalke is decent, getting a draw from a winning position is tough to handle though for sure, especially since we could have nicked it at the end, the draw wouldnt have been so frustrating if we werent in the lead.

Not the biggest Mannone fan, but despite the two goals he saved many a time tonight.

Cannot wait for Gibbs to return, oh how we’ve missed the lad.

And Walcott sounds like a lad that wants to stay at Arsenal, i guess its down to our board too secure his services on a longer term -__-

austingooner

I wasn’t happy at Mannone becoming our de-facto starting goalkeeper, but these last two or three games have convinced me he’s pretty good. I mean, even the games we lose, we haven’t lost because of Mannone. (Mostly poor defending from TV.)

RedandWhiteStar

True, it seems Mannone has benefited from getting regular games on the trot. Been let down by individual errors and defensive mistakes. If it weren’t for him, we’d have been getting smashed by larger margins the way we’ve been playing over the past few weeks.

wukong

Yes. Don Vito really deserves some credits. He’s just 21 and only our 3rd choice keeper but has been doing a pretty decent job so far. Still don’t understand why people would blame him all the time. Mistakes happen even to the greatest and more experienced keepers and you can be sure next time he make the slightest mistake people will rant all over the place again while I think we should be thankful to him for the job he’s doing. I’m starting to become a fan of him and I really hope even when our “number 1” will be… Read more »

Dr Baptiste

Just to say that Mannone is 24, not 21

dboy

True guys. He takes the flack for a sh*tty defense.

LeeroyJenkins

when does walcott not get the ball stuck between his legs when he takes more than 1 toutch

diefenbaker

why does run and hide behind opposition players after passing the ball to sagna, what was he expecting sagna to do with the ball?

MistaKen

“Hopefully we can win the Premier League this year”. He’ s having a bubble bath!

Denchilinho

They should sort his contract out. I thought all he needs is Bic pen

Stanford machakata

I honestly cannot put my finger on what is wrong with arsenal. We just become too ordinery.i do not believe that we can beat any of the teams fighting for the top 4. We are too flat.vamuleen should be rested until he gets his orientation back

JustAnotherMong

..the reason Fergie beats us so easily most pf the time… Our tactics suck. That and the fact we condense our attacking into a tiny tiny strip level with their 18 yard line, no room for our CF to move and 21 players all squeezed into the final third. We do well when we can attack into space but we’re too slow and careful to do that most of the time.

dboy

Guys our problem starts on the training ground. You can see that when we play the players look clueless why? because This is what is happening in Gunnerland 4th place is a trophy and a draw is a win. DELUDED MANAGER F^&KING UP OUR TEAM. THE MAN IS CLUELESS HE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO. Period!!! SOMEONE PLEASE SAVE ARSENAL!!!

pigsinspace

wilshire put in a good shift tonight but looked really wrecked at 70+ minutes. I really think he should of pulled him off (no pun intended) and maybe even given arshavin a run out..

Sue.My.Chin

Arteta’s face when he looked at Theo and said “..and we had the last chance with Theo.”

MistaKen

We looked drugged up

Arsenal_SouthAfrica

think Giroud put in another good shift. Really like the guy.. Progressing. He has that “individual goals” brewing inside him ii think, just needs more game time and confidence. One for the long term…

C’mon You Sexy Man You!

R18

Looks like he wants to take off. Beware usai bolt, beware.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/11/06/article-2228822-15E23BC8000005DC-276_634x412.jpg

Arsenal_SouthAfrica

haha.. Giroud just looks way sexier doing it, and in such a sexy sweater.. Love that away kit..!

dboy

Giroud like all the players can perform better under a new manager. Watch what happens to our players that move to other EPL tema we envy them. So what is really the problem at Arsenal???

GateCrasher

Good game overall I thought, better spirit and attitude compared to the weekend. Wilshere looked good but should have been subbed around the 70th minute or so. What happened to “easing him back”? Least he gets next weekend off…

Would be good to see a little more Carpe Jugulum from the lads though

wardy

reading between the lines. Me thinks walcott will shortly no longer be a gooner but a gonner. Such a shame as well always liked the lad. sure he can be ineffective and clumsy but he also has the ability to cause havoc

Missing Gibbs

Any ideas why we used the subs so late? I know it’s the norm with Arsenal but never understood 89th min subs.

austingooner

LOL, to give Santos some confidence, but not give him time to eff things up!

pigsinspace

we just look so frail in defence and i can’t help but wonder if it would of been as bad if song had of been there. Arteta is a good player and all but he’s not the defensive midfield we need and we need one there is no doubt about it. No protection for that back 4 … no one to fall into the hole like song used to do.

Arsenal_SouthAfrica

song isn’t a DM any more.. Barca turned him into a RB..

As in Right Bench.

pigsinspace

well he should come right back, nuck nuck…

austingooner

Arteta’s better than Song. But it would be nice to still have Song here, at least to have a decent midfielder on the bench…

Sol Goodman

As good as Arteta is in the DM position i would rather have him playing in his natural position. Whatever you say about Song acting like a dick, he probably should have been kept for another year anyway, selling two big players in one summer is too much. On Saturday before that horror show against united, there was an interview with Rio Ferdinand before the match and he talked about the lift that bringing in a world class player like the skunk gives a team, the new player works really hard too show what he can do, and it makes… Read more »

hawaii

I think I would rather have Yossi with the squad than Alex Song … he is such a pro. Lots of respect to the man

dboy

This is what is happening in Gunnerland 4th place is a trophy and a draw is a win. DELUDED MANAGER F^&KING UP OUR TEAM. THE MAN IS CLUELESS HE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO.

R18

Sagna is just top class. He’s a warrior this guy, in terms of aerial balls he just had to be at the end of them all. Also a good crosser now all that’s left is a ball point pen and Arsene to present him that contract……..i think?. But what does gazidis and co think?

JustAnotherMong

As Sagna is our best long-term player, I fully expect him to leave on a free or be sold to Barca at the next opportunity. Not that I want that of course, but that is what history tells us happens at this club!

When did this start? When the club started screwing great players who WANTED to extend their contracts… Pires, Ljungberg, Parlour.

Solomon alexander

I think vamaleen should be rested until he get his head together or collect the captaincy from him mab that is what has get to his head,cus he made some stupid mistake this day.

A N Other

I think TV will be back.. He is low on confidence… Walcott is just fine. I reckon we should extend him as pace is a rare commodity in premier league and even rarer at arsenal.

PGunner

Solid enough tonight. Manonne and Sagna excelled and Theo looked worth a compromise at 90k a week if it is all about the ££s. Big shame about that chance at the end but onwards and upwards I say!

A N Other

And wilshere is already looking so good despite not been fully fit.

R18

Has he stolen cazorlas mojo somehow?.

austingooner

Cazorla needs a rest. Physically exhausted.

Lad

Santa needs a rest????. Hope he’ll be around for xmas though,

John onyeka nigeria

Atimes wenger could be inept in mi own opinion cos Arshavin shld’ve been brought in 2 freshen up the game @ 7mins….our captain is becomin a calamity these days,wat da hell is wrong with him,one error to another.A captain shld be a energising the team with good performance n encouragement bt he jst kept quiet.Dumb gosh

austingooner

Sort of agree with parts, don’t understand the rest, so…

Heh

This just in:

Santos in a high speed road chase, he’s apparently following a red jeep. The driver of the jeep has been confirmed as klaas jan hunteelar……..oh…oh wait…cameras catch santos on camera shouting something, it seems to be “i want that shirt”

More to follow.

Andersinho

How the fucking cunt can the ref think that was a hrs injury when the guy was HOLDING HIS LEG. No wonder Poldi was seething – I would have bitch slapped the silly eejit and got sent off so well done to Lukas for being calm, all things considered. Also nice to see that Santos was let on the pitch with very little probability of touching the ball, or coming into contact with a childhood hero to swap a shirt with – I’m happy with him playing the enviable role of ‘clock-winder-downer’ in the 94th I’m every match if need… Read more »

Randomhero82

Santos is a nice lad but I’d feel safer with bungle from ‘rainbow’ at LB then our Brazilian smiler!

Isayed

Saturday.

Mannone/ (schezzers is also fit so???/)

Sagna……..mert……koscienly……..gibss (is fit!!!!!)

Jack…. Arteta……Cazorla.

Walcott………giroud……..poldi. Get in gooners.

austingooner

Keep Mannone. He’s been solid.

JustAnotherMong

You’ve done it upside down

PJ

Jack is suspended

Matt Jarvis' Uncle

Walcott on whether he’s benched because of his contract situation…

“You’ll have to ask the manager that question, I can’t answer that.”

That seals it for me, Walcott is a goner.

flinky

most expensive tickets,but the club decline… come on fans, open your naive eyes

declined credit club 🙁

Lad

Wow are my eyes naive?

Have to get em checked first thing in the morning!!.

dboy

Sarcasm is a fools weapon. I am sure that you understood what he meant.

sube

The way I see it , it became more clear to me that Wallcot does not deserve to play for Arsenal. He might do well for a mid-table club.

dboy

Are we not almost a mid-table club???

leaf

i’ve always thought it was premature to give vermaelen the armband, he doesnt seem to be the alpha player in the team. hes not the most senior nor best player in the pack and now seems to be under enormous pressure to start performing as a captain. seems to me, there is a series of problems throughout the club, from top to bottom.

arshavin

Why does Wenger overkill his players?Carzola–does he rally need to play every match till the end.

Builderarch

Vermaelen playing like he’s been hanging out out in Colorado smoking our NOW LEGAL WEED!

Coconuts

The way things are going, I’ll settle for the one point. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle still doesn’t seem to fit and Arsenal at times really play like shit or do we just not have all the pieces in the box? It’s frustrating but I’m still holding on to hope that they’ll turn it around and start playing again just as they did against Liverpool and City. And they had better do it soon as next up are Fulham followed by the cesspool dwelling scum. COME ON ARSENAL!!!

meletios

I hope for the same too…but the reason is most ot them are not that fresh anymore and need some weeks rest, both from a physical and mostly mental point of view, which is natural especially for the new players…problem is we dont have solid backups who are equally good… in most of the positions…this is one aspect which has not been managed properly at Arsneal for several years now

[…] 来源:[Arseblog News] […]

rossi88

Giroud in my opinion was pretty poor tonight. the effort is there and yes he scored. but his link up play was terrible. didnt hold it up and lay it off, won probably 2/10 aerial challenges. and the walcott goal, well, lucky he was there otherwise no goal. seriously a replacement gor RVP?? Need another striker in jan. well played mannone for keeping us in there

d-holio

Don’t get me wrong, Theo deserves a run in the side but it was a game of two halves for him. I thought he was great in the first half as he showed what we have been missing out wide big time durring this bad funk we’ve been in. But the second half was classic Bad Theo. Poor decision making and crosses going absolutely no where but the stands. Just knew he wasn’t going to score that last chance at the end. When he plays like that, how can the board justify $100K for that. But sadly, the quality level… Read more »

A N Other

Some Thumbs down moron is getting trigger happy..what did you find objectionable in my one line wilshere praise.

Are you a sp*uds fan?

[…] after the game on Tuesday if he’d been benched this season because of his contract situation, Walcott’s snippy reply, “You’ll have to ask the manager that question, I can’t answer that,” is more than open to […]

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