Wojciech Szczesny says Arsenal can take confidence from a strong defensive display against Sunderland on Saturday.
The Gunners finished the game with a midfielder at right back, and a right back at centre-half, in a back four that is unlikely to ever feature again, and the Polish keeper praised the work they put in to protect the one goal lead.
“It was difficult once Carl got sent off,” he said, “and we were playing with a back four that had never played together. But I thought they all did a tremendous job.
“Every ball that was played across, we were the first to clear it, so they deserve a lot of credit for the way we played.
“I think we proved to a lot of people that we have what it takes to be successful because it wasn’t the best game in terms of quality, but we showed everyone the character and desire we have to get a result.”
Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger is hopeful his team can take confidence from the result as they head into a crucial part of the season.
“With performances like this I think the confidence will come back and that will be useful.
“Now we go into some very big games. We play in the FA Cup on Saturday. On the following Tuesday night we play against Bayern Munich, so you know at the back you will need top-class performances.”
Szcz rules!! Monumental performance on Saturday, we are going to do this!!! No more hallf-hearted displays just pure awesome fighting spirit!
COYG!!!
I agree – his performance on Saturday kept us in the game at times and surely prevented a draw or defeat. That aside, some of his prior performances have been questionable to say the least and roundly criticised on this very blog. His time would be better spent concentrating on his game rather spouting nonsense to tabloid journos.
I mean, after we get a strong midfielder(some kind of an enforcer, mvila type of player), arsenal is complete. With squad depth, which we are very close to achieving, we can start challenging for the title next season. Keep the faith gooners! ARSENAL TIL I DIE
Szczmells like team szczpirit!!!
And there were Pundits who wrote him off. Buggers!!
COYG
I seem to remember an article from years ago being dredged up when Giroud was getting slated by some pundits, on why Bergkamp was a flop after his first few months here. Turns out pundits have always been idiots.
Amazing thing is that they always criticize (after event) and if they get it wrong themselves, they never admit. There are always similar lines they say, write, only difference is they find a new target if the previous one improves etc. Having said that some of the fans have similar one-eyed view as well. I was reading on Telegraph comments where someone was slating Ramsey for poor display. Admittedly he lost ball couple of times in the centre leading to break and possibly goal, he created a lot of chances and put a real shift. Similarly Giroud misses chances but… Read more »
Nacho Man – The silent assassin. Loved how he has just gone about his work without much fuss.
Yeah, it’s a real shame that he’s not going to be there to stop Robben. I think he would have definitely been capable.
It won’t be Robben, Bayern will be playing the in-form Thomas Mueller at RW for our clash. Was looking at Bayern’s record this year in the Bundesliga and it’s frightening – 15 points clear at the top, only 1 loss, only 7 goals conceded and in their last 5 games they have had an aggregate scoreline of 13-0. Still… I’m feeling confident we can pull off an upset. After all if we can go to the San Siro and beat AC Milan 2-0 and Inter Milan 5-1 when we were massive underdogs then we can sure as hell beat Bayern… Read more »
I think it’s a good thing that we are the underdogs, the pressure will be on Bayern then.
go gunners go
Bac got me thinking real hard the other day. After a stellar perfomance at CB do you think maybe it’s time for a position change. I say this coz of late he looks offpace at RB. Not fast enough e.t.c. Ramos at R.madrid did it effortlessly, I know bac might not be the real deal centreback but his determination, steel and desire is just what the central defence needs and stop all this silly, lack of balls! goals.
Just pointing it out – Ramos was actually a CB all along who played at RB for some time.
Sagna at CB might not be a bad idea.
the question is if he would also be able to perform next to vermaelen or koscielny. he too is a player who likes to attack the ball and relies more on his pace than his tactical positioning. and we saw the flaws in pairing two defenders of that kind. it only seems to work really well when one of them plays alongside the BFG.
but his excellent performance was a huge relief: we can handle two injured CBs without playing squidward…
Next season, if –touch wood– he is still here, it might be worth thinking about.
Right now, Jenk’s performance on Saturday highlights how this might not be such a good idea
We also have to remember that Walcott provides pretty much nil cover for his right back – instead, Sagna being able to pace the entire right wing for a match straight, game after game, has enabled Walcott to fairy twirl the ball past the keeper many a time. Jenkinson clearly does not have the physicality or the experience to pull such a feat off, which is to be expected, as its a superhuman task. Sagna might not have been on the greatest form, but let’s be a little forgiving considering all he had to do – Arsenal’s defensive and attacking… Read more »
Random: anyone know how to get a ticket the emirates without being a memeber , I’m form austrlia and going down there soon enough . Epl game btw .
It’s almost impossible to get tickets if you’re not a member- the only way is if they go on General Sale and you’re able to pay a fortune for the last remaining seats.
follow @arsenaltickets on twitter
Honestly, if you are shelling out for a major trip over, I’d almost suggest grabbing a red membership, I know a US mate of mine did it recently.
It’ll add around £25 to your budget, but gets you into the system, and makes getting tickets way easier.
Ironic, isn’t it? Out best cb is sagna!!!
Wenger may have an eye for everything but, cb certainly, doesn’t look like his cup of tea.
Senderos, silvestre, squilacci, djourou, kos, per, miquel, did I forget anyone else?
I’ve actually given up on if we’ll ever have a decent cb pairing under wenger.
Big Sol and Kolo?
and i don’t see how anyone could complain about mertesacker and koscielny. especially the BFG is excellent.
Clearly no one is pleased to michu.
That’s…weird.
I don’t entirely get your list of CBs lurching between excellent and awful, maybe the inconsistency of his choice?
interesting that through all the on pitch frustrations that podolski seemed to have with Santos, he was one of the first to wish him the best via social media. maybe they had good chemistry in the locker room but on the pitch they bumped heads…
Or may Podolski’s just glad to see the back off him?
Given his propensity for running up the pitch when he should be defending, maybe Poldi has seen too much of his back already?
Maybe he just liked him? Just because they were incompatible in a football sense means nothing for their personality..
Given that this is a slowish week I’d like to pose a question that has bothered me for a long time. Why isn’t this year’s team better than last years? When I look around I see Arsenal better at every position save for one. And yes I realize that that guy who left was very good but we haven’t totally sucked at that position so that can’t be everything. Last year was horrible from an injury standpoint. Not really so this year. Maybe we’re not good enough to win the league but I can’t quite figure out why this year’s… Read more »
New players take time to gel… This season is the first that Arteta, Wilshere & Cazorla have played together and on top of that you add Giroud & Podders into the mix & that’s 5 guys who have had to undergo on the job training.
Our early season form was hampered by the lack of understanding in our team, too many players trying to settle into a new team and a new league; that gave us a pretty shaky but generally promising start. Then we suffered from injuries and a chronic lack of confidence borne out of some bad performances and the fact this team didn’t know if they *could* play the way they are doing now. You-know-who leaving only compounded the issues, as he would have sneaked us a few wins from draws and maybe even converted some of the losses. All that has… Read more »
who said we’re not a better team than last year? i’m just guessing (because i’m to lazy to look it up. maybe somebody has some stats about it?), but i think we had less points and more goals conceded at this point last season. and we were farther behind spu*s. i think there are two reasons why we don’t look as good as last season: 1) we had this guy who turned out to be a cunt, but scored some crucial goals and had the ability to win a match single handed. 2) our opponents got better. chelsea were crap… Read more »
Pretty much as above. We particularly need players to be comfortable with each other for our passing game to work. I remember Podli, Giroud and Cazorla trying to work the same space in the first game; actually getting in each others’ way. Add to that Wilshere coming back and taking time to get up to speed.
Just imagine. Look how the midfield are playing together now and then think if they were playing like that at the start of the season. Where might me be now?
I think I might have to go and have a little cry.
Had we had Nacho from the start of the season, we would most certainly still fighting for the EPL title. We don’t appreciate enough that Podolski is a MONSTER and a weapon of mass destruction, but Poldi can’t be ‘unleashed’ without a world-class Leftback playing behind him. Kieran Gibbs, for all his merits in ‘defending’ and ‘penetrating’, has never even once provided Poldi with an accurate (meaning “inch-perfect”) pass or cross. What’s the use penetrating defenses if you can’t shoot accurately or pass to a teammate accurately? As for Santos… well Poldi would have murdered him on the pitch in… Read more »
forgot to mention…
– Theo contract dispute: estimated 5-6 points dropped
– Wenger’s failure to ROTATE the squad properly during busy periods, resulting in Arteta injury and Cazorla burnout: estimated 7-8 points dropped.
– Sagna’s atypical defensive errors due to distraction of ‘disrespectful’ contract-extension offered by Doctor Evil Gazidis (only 1yr extension, at same salary of GBP60k-a-week which is on par with Chamack/Djourou/Squilacci ’nuff said) as punishment for Alex Song comments: estimated 4-5 points dropped.
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I honestly feel we’re not as good last year because last year we had that cunt who could against the so called bigger teams. As much as we love Giroud, he has yet to prove himself against the best, if anything Theo is better set to do that. When both start firing against the likes of Chelsea, United etc we’ll be fine.
[…] course, after such a gritty and gutsy win, there will be the usual ramblings of team spirit, and how the manager feels that the team is up for a fight. There’s also Mikel Arteta, […]