Arsene Wenger admits that he has no idea why his side were so poor in the second half at Craven Cottage as the Gunners nearly allowed ten-men Fulham to grab an unlikely draw.
Arsenal took the lead just before half-time thanks to Per Mertesacker’s close range header but were pretty much abject after that before Olivier Giroud got himself sent off in injury-time to leave the visitors clinging on the win.
Speaking after the victory, which takes the Gunners back to third, the boss told Sky Sports:
“Of course for us after the draw against Everton it was important to take the three points.
“It was a positive first-half, but for some reason, and I don’t know why, our game in the second-half deteriorated and our passing became sloppy. We played with less pace in our game and you have to give Fulham credit – they are a good side and they tried like mad. They played very well today.
“It became hard, and in the second-half especially I think we played with a hand-brake.
“We just wanted to keep the lead without taking any risk and had not enough penetration. When a team is down to ten men they focus on defending deep and they defended well. We did not give them enough problems today.”
With Giroud now suspended for three games Wenger admitted that the Gunners now have to find a means of replacing a striker who has played 46 times this season.
“Unfortunately yes we have to find a solution up front for the final games, but that can happen and we have to deal with it,” he said.
“The result is the most important thing now, but the best way to get the result is still to play well. I think the nerves played a part in the second-half as we did not want to be exposed and we lost our fluency.”
Winning with the handbrake on.
After playing so much with the handbrake on, it has starten to loosen up. Soon it will be so worn out that we won’t even noticing it’s up. Which is kinda bad, if we one day decide to park the bus. That could end in a fatal catastrophy if we don’t have a proper handbrake working.
Ok, I’m done. I’ll get my coat myself!
I hope Giroud gets out of a 3 match suspension.
Poor today, make sure we preform better against ManU and that they don’t get the title in our ground.
Why the red thumbs?
We were not good enough in this match and against a tougher opposition like united we would have left with a draw or nothing at all. We need to be more efficient for the visit of united so as to delay van pursetrings’ title celebrations or have to sit through him and shrek roaming the emirates, title up high.
That image!!!! Im gonna be sick now.
Im Hoping with Giroud out, we might get to see Poldi in his best position?
Ramsey has only started to really shine lately only after AW returned to playing him in his right/natural position. Poldi scored double figures for a team that was relegated in the end…one can only wonder how much more he’d have already contributed to us this season had he been given opportunities as a centre-forward in place of AW’s pseudo-strikers like Gervinho and Walcott.
Does Arsene do hair dryer speeches? Because I think this one deserves one, although one positive is we have won very scrappy in the last few games, although whats the point playing beautifully and losing when you can play ugly and win I guess we know what option we have taken recently.
I must say that while I understand some of my fellow Arsenal fan’s lack of enthusiasm with Giroud’s play, especially today, you have to understand that saying comments such as, “thank god he got a red card and is suspended for 3 matches” is absolutely unnecessary. Giroud might not possess every quality you would want in an Arsenal striker, but he has ran his tail off all season, and for his first season in England I think he has done a hell of a job. Perhaps, just perhaps, when Gervinho or Walcott are skewing shots wide with open nets gaping… Read more »
Actually, that sort of reminds me of Giroud. But you might be right
Rightly said cashley…..
Because Walcott neither defend nor attack, Arsenal play with 10 men when Walcott plays.
I agree with this. I would get his back because he is a gunner and everything..but I won’t because of the shit he pulled with the contract thing..and demands and all that crap. He clearly is not worth what we pay him. I’d rather start Ox/Gervinator/Poldi ahead of him any day of the week.
Never mind ! Here’s something to cheer us all up :-
http://news.sky.com/story/1080776/arsenal-co-owner-is-now-uks-richest-man
Hopefully podolski now will get his chance up front from the start I think he,LL do the job just nicely poor performance today I thought the ox should have got a run but 3 points in the bag
Fulham didn’t defend well because they didn’t have to. Over 70% possession and what was it ? One shot on target I think.
We may still get fourth or even third but I Just hope arsene doesn’t see that as justification for keeping this squad as it is and not adding to it in a significant way.
@ Vold, couldn’t agree more, always the danger that if we finish top four the money men will think “why spend £30 million when this squad gets us in to the champions league” I just pray they want Arsene to push on to the next level and seriously challenge for the title.
If it was up to me I’d say to Arsene, “Here’s £60-80 million, bring the glory days back, and stay for five more years”.
We couldn’t create one single chance against 10 men against a midtable team. Wenger surely sees that and makes the signings we need… surely?
It was pretty impressive that we managed to score without creating one single chance, wouldn’t you say?
3 points is stiil the most important thing and I am totally thrilled with that. But…
Arsenal was shit today and they’ve been shit in a lot of the recent games. Yes winning ugly is good but the teams we’ve eked out results against haven’t exactly been Champions League squads. Ironically, I think some of the best play since Bayern has been the last 60-70 minutes against Everton. So maybe they can pull up the game against a better team.
Same old Shit coming out of wengers mouth Excuses,excuses,excuses. Theres no excuse for a performance like that. He cant Keep blaming the handbrake. Can u imagine fergy, Mancini or José putting up with that muck…ye Didint think so
Are you seriously putting Mancini in the same bracket as Fergie (most successful manager of all time, turned United from sleeping giants to dynasty) and Mourinho (best manager around)? He’s not even fit to wear Wenger’s ridiculous coat, his purchases have been terrible and he couldn’t crack Europe at Inter and seemingly not at City either. He won a league because United didn’t score enough goals, with a team worth over half a billion, and United had severe defensive injuries. However on weight of evidence, think of every player that has deteriorated after leaving his employ. Count every last one.… Read more »
Just for the record. Both Ferguson and Mourinho both got lucky before they got into myth-making. And both would be absolutely average if they weren’t backed with the kind of money AFC could only dream of. Ferguson is having rather too many senior moments these days. And Mourinho is a self-serving ego-centric reprobate who can only maintain his image by spending other people’s money in quantities disproportionate to results. (And those days are largely over.) If he does go back to Chelsea (and I sort-of hope he does) he’ll never be able to replicate his earlier successes. Arsene Wenger, for… Read more »
The handbrake is a Wengerism for the team not playing with the fluidity they should be. Its not an excuse. Its a description of what went on, and he said he didn’t know the reason why. The handbrake, like Santa, is not real. Sorry.
NUM 1 You’re not in the real world mate, don’t you think United, city and Chelski have off days and play badly sometimes, it’s all about still winning when you do….go and post your stupid childish comments somewhere else!!
Mourinho, Ferguson and Mancini are cunts. I can imagine cunts like that doing many things and I do know they blame their defeats on many things (refs, weather, etc..) so why not “handbrakes”. These buffoons that you seem to love are capable of anything: poke eyes, put on masks, intimidate refs, insult one another.
Wenger is way above that pathetic crowd. I like managers with a minimum of class and that Man-u, city, mourinho dick sucking group that posts this type of comments on my fav arsenal blog upset me.
Wenger is way above that pathetic crowd.
Absolutley ! They win things. He doesn’t. Can you spot the difference ?
Yea great, I don’t even care what they do. When you got all the fucking money in the world it’s easy to win ‘things”. Anyways their success doesn’t mean they aren’t classless, pathetic despicable people. But do remain on your knees if you enjoy it.
(I’m no Wenger fan by the way I just like him better than those clowns)
Well I care very much ‘what they do’ because they often win the trophies I want to see Arsenal winning. And you’re a very curious sort of ‘fan’ if you don’t. But then like many on this site, I suspect you actually don’t care and in that sense your attitude mirrors many of the Club’s hierarchy, which goes a long way to explaining why it’s eight years and counting since we have won anything and it’ll be another with years or more, until that attitude changes.
3 points.
To Gooner: I like that, u nearly had me there, santa not real, as if..
Apologies to all, but there are times reading through here that I feel like we are the People’s Front of Judea.
Reg: ‘What have the Arsenal done for us?’
Member: ‘Got us 3 points?’
Reg: ‘Obviously, and?’
2nd Member: ‘Kept a clean sheet?’
Reg: ‘OK, but what else?’
Member: ‘Solid performance from the keeper?’
Reg: ‘Obviously, but what have they really done for us?’
You know the rest…….
This basically
ok, now we go with Gervinho, Chamberlain and Podolski up front. I think Walcott needs a break as well. He and Giroud have been flat lately.
Why did Wenger wait so long to bring on subs? i think we could have had a run at them earlier in the 2nd half to put the game to bed.
Risk Akpom? He’ll give us more than Walcott will.
At least Wilshere played well
Three points are three points are three points. And a clean sheet. Do people realise that we’ve got 16 points out of 18 now? A bunch of clean sheets along with it? I don’t get why people can be happy about the red card “to see Podolski in his favoured position”. Well, we did at the start of the season and he was shite. I love Podolski and I was hoping for him to start on the left instead of The Invisible Theo, but nothing suggests Podolski can play as a lone striker, he has never done that in Germany,… Read more »
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