Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain admits the Gunners were fucking shite not up to scratch against Liverpool as he reflected on a harrowing 5-1 defeat which has supporters and critics alike questioning Arsenal’s title credentials.
The England midfielder was, compared to some of his teammates, at least full of running during a 90 minutes which goes down as one of the worst of the Arsene Wenger era.
Speaking to Arsenal.com after the game, the 20-year-old stressed that it’s up to he and his teammates to turn things around quickly.
“We are very disappointed, especially with the first half. We know we are better than that. So in that sense we are gutted.
“But these things happen in football and it is our responsibility to turn that around and we have great opportunity on Wednesday night.
“When the first goal went early you have to respond and ‘see out’ the next 10 or 15 minutes. We failed to do that and, credit to Liverpool, I thought they were brilliant and we were not up to scratch.
“In the second half we knew we had to improve and I believe that we did that. So there are some mental positives today but we have to put it right on Wednesday.”
Per Mertesacker echoed the comments of his teammate on Facebook stating: “Sorry guys, this was a poor game of the whole team. But we have to stand together in this defeat. We have to get our heads sorted now and get ready for the next very important games again.”
Olivier Giroud also took to Twitter to apologise for his performance: “Was a really poor performance from me! We have to face our responsabilities and bounce back V united! So disappointed but keep the head up!”
Arguably the most honest of all the assessments from the Arsenal players came from keeper Szczesny who pulled no punches lamenting: “That was f….ing embarrasing! Apologies to anyone who sat through 90mins of that game.”
They can flagellate all they like for 48 hours, but when Wednesday comes around the only thing anybody cares about is sticking it to United and sealing three points.
Yes i know i know…….but this boy will be a motherfucking beast. #Talent!
minus for hashtag
It’s at times like this I wish I’d listened to what my father used to say
What did he say???
I dunno…I didn’t listen
kinda like the Arsenal team and Arsene in the first half today.
That’s great!
Priceless.
a fellow hitch hikers guide fan!
Arthur Dent is alive!
You have to give credit to Liverpool. We had enough quality on the field and regardless of any tactical issues, we should not have lost this badly. United next where we really have to rise to the occasion. A strong win will see us back in it (as is, some fortune with City dropping points to Norwich but Chelsea’s expensive little pony have silently and stealthily slipped by. Reality check. Death Run 2 has far slimmer margins where we survived the earlier Death Run 1 whilst failing. I suspect the next 3 games will definitely confirm which will be our… Read more »
What do I say to my colleagues in the office on Monday? What do I say? 🙁
Expletives mostly.
Be an adult and tell them to fuck right off. 1 point off the lead.
Remind him that we had 1 more goal than Liverpool has Premier League titles.
The best way to deal with people that want to give you crap about a defeat by your team is to beat them to it with a line like “Man we sucked on Saturday” and talk up their team, that will take all of their joy out of giving you shit.
Oh, that’s far too mature. I prefer OG Mike’s solution.
brilliant..it fucking shuts them up
To get over this I think we all need the following: Arsenal 9 Man Utd 0 As Ox smashes in Arsenal’s ninth he runs over to RVP. The rest of the team grab onto him. In a ‘conga’ if you will. Ox then laughs in Van Dickwankerjudasfucker’s face. IN HIS FACE! Everyone else follows suit. At the final whistle, our left back (hopefully Gibbs) does an Andre Santos and asks for Van Prickdieyoucunt’s shirt. Van Cuntyrapistjudastwat gives his shirt. Gibbs then wipes his arse on it and throws it back at him. I will be over today if that takes… Read more »
What is with this team and its tendency for collapse?
Yes our position in the league is terrific and the results this season have been fantastic. But what other top team gets dismantled like we did today? Three of our worst ever beatings in the premier league’s 20-odd seasons have come in the past three seasons. Where is the fucking grit and resilience in this side? No side should ever put 5 goals past a side this good.
Newcastle 5 – 0 man utd… 1996/1997…. Champions- Man U
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the team seemed to lose their mojo around the same time as Ramsey got injured again, we need him back badly. Hopefully we won’t have to eat too many more of these shit sandwich’s. That Suarez is pretty handy, maybe we should have went to £40,000,002
This is the kick up the arse I think we really have needed. A painful defeat beyond measure.1-0, 2-0 would not have been that difficult to handle, but 5-1 is one of my most painful experiences as a Gooner. I am sure it is just as painful for Arsene and the boys if not more so. They will work extra hard now to ensure that this does not happen again. In fact, if we were to lose it is better that we lost now rather than losing later in the season.
Plus we are only a point behind Chelsea. 13 games, utd, Chelsea, City to come. I would be happy with 5 points from these three teams and 30 from the rest. I believe that would ensure us the title. As I said, just the kick up the backside we have needed, as happened against Sp**s last year. After that we went on an unbeaten run and ensured 4th.
70/71 0-5 v Stoke (a)
90/91 2-6 v Man U (h)
97/98 0-3 v Derby (a)
01/02 2-4 v Charlton (h)
03/04 0-3 v Inter (h)
Just sayin’
…and it’s bloomin’ February
We even made sissoko look like a world beater today. That’s how bad we were. That was a worse performance than both the 8-2 and the 6-3 at City IMO. Bad day at the office but we’re only one point off the top so we bounce back like we have before. I believe we will.
I can take defeats, even bad defeats but when we show heart. Where is the grit and determination?
How come we just rolled over and died, without any fight?
I didn’t get it today. When the infamous 8-2 happened, at least our team was shite.
This team had been leading the league since God knows when.
Our team was shite that day, but it wasn’t ‘8-2’ shite. I’ve seen players lacking determination and grit, but that was a whole other level. Today also.
We’re always poor on these Saturday lunch kick offs. I honestly think it’s a preparation problem. Our worst 3 performances of the season have been today and City (both Sat lunch) and Southampton, when the coach turned up late. I think there’s an issue there to be sorted out.
Yes, the tyres of the coach were a bit flat.
Funny but I def agree with the Southampton one.
Another thing that I noted before was the lack of pace in our attack. We don’t have a speedy winger like Theo that can hurt teams on the counter, or at least push them back.
Gnabry and Ox are OK but nowhere on the level of the wingers our competition have. Hazard, Willian,Navas etc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWwUJH70ubM#t=28
Over the last 4 or 5 weeks I have been regularly commenting that we have started our games (Villa aside) very slowly and have only really done enough to win games without looking particularly great. We got out of jail against Southampton and could easily have been 3 or 4 down at half time against them but that did nothing to affect our next performance at home to Palace, where, again, we starter slowly and were ok in gaining a 2-0 win but nothing more. I genuinely feared if we took our current form into this game we could be… Read more »
Despite the terrible showing it might be the best case scenario that involves us losing. Obviously a win was the best case but now that we have lost by a huge margin, it’s almost a guarantee that we respond wednesday AND we’re going to crush pool at home.
Is it possible that a narrow 1-0 wouldn’t have this effect? I’m not saying the loss is good, its the worst. But, as a silver lining maybe a good facewash is good ahead of a major week.
Fuck me!
No.
My main problem with Arsenal’s playing style is that our weakness has been exposed. That is excessive pressure when on the ball. We are a passing team, and credit to Liverpool who closed us down at all cost. We never seem to have a contingency plan when this type of stuff does happen. I can’t remember but it was either Crystal Palace or Southampton that were pilling on the pressure but they didnt have the quality to score from those chances. And on the counter attack we are fully exposed. Now Bayern Munich and other big teams know this massive… Read more »
I think everyone needs to put things into perspective city 1 point from the last 6 are hardly out of the title race sometimes you get results that are freak the two Spanish teams getting hammered last year in the champs league by the German teams comes to mind they wouldn’t loose as heavily again. It might be the motivation required to beat united on Wednesday which would be a blessing in disguise I hate loosing to united. One thing we do know for sure the lads wont need motivation for the f a cup game after this my guess… Read more »
Yeah cos we will beat Chelsea. We always do!
Dream on.
Chokers February is upon us. Enjoy the car crash.
mark my words…fuck you buddy.
Really?
My comment is based on painful experience.
Yours……. Well we will call it blind optimism.
But I tell you what lets wait until after we are beaten by united midweek, and pool replicate that performance next weekend and bayern makes the return leg of the CL a non entity.
We’ll talk again then eh ‘buddy’!
Thank you for those positive sentiments crispy and even if you are correct I hope your ears turn to arseholes and shit on your shoulders
Happy Sunday to ya
@Highberry below………… You’re hilarious. Painted a great picture in my head.
It’s bizarre how you can’t have a realistic negative opinion on this blog without a tonne of thumb downs. We’re all hurting as we’re all Gooners.
I worry about two things:- our fixtures in Feb/March and that you Highberry don’t actually realise you’re a clueless cunt.
Now enjoy YOUR Sunday 😉
sticks and stones crispy….sticks and stones…..how are the shoulders ?
Stacked.
How’s the IQ?
Lower than a penguin’s chuff but hey, life goes on 🙂
Highberry 3-0 Crispy
By a narrow 1-0 I mean a 1-0 loss not a narrow win. All this SAS nonsense has got me confused, its such a terrible acronym. Worse than a sturridge goal cell
I’ll probably get slated by everyone on here, but a 42M midfield maestro shouldn’t be giving the ball away so freely in that position. Turn around, pass back, stand your ground!! I don’t care, but do your job!! Don’t just flop over like that
He’s yet to turn it on in a ‘big game’. Needs to warm the bench with Rosicky coming in. We lack drive and pace in attack at the moment.
Time we started demanding more from our star signing. Ozil is still getting a feel for the premier league and I have no doubt he’ll get better next season but if the little boy inside him wishes to play for Barca and they’re willing to swap Fabregas for him, I’d say ‘Bite their f*cking hands off!!!’
I’m gonna be properly fucked on Monday! “They” have already started to break my balls… Bloody Monday is going to be hell on earth and impossible to work… 🙁 Wankers!
I bet money with a colleague who’s a Chelsea fan that we’d beat ‘pool 3-1. So I’m a tenner down and have to listen to him crowing about being top of the league.
Fucking supporting Arsenal really hurts sometimes.
We will win the league indeed.
When was the last time ozil got a rating over 6 from any source all year. ..
Please wenger f- off
Well he did get a good rating for his fabulous first assist in EPL in the Sunderland game. He got a 9/10 in the Napoli home game as well. That’s just two to mention. He’s bad form is probably a result of the winter break he didn’t get.
Up to he?
As fucking dire as the team was fair play to several of them for posting an apology online and being brutally honest about the performance.
If we dont beat Manure on Wed. I believe our season could come crashing down around our ears. Going on Sunday so hoping we can reverse todays defeat. COYG
The most painful thing was michael fucking owens wee wanker cunt bag voice vhirping away frantically over the entire game. We brought joy to that wee cunt today and that is the worst part of it all.
Oh God that child like voice was so annoying!
Its never nice to lose in such a way but I for one believe it could be what we needed after a few unconvincing performances,I really would of liked to beat them but after such a shite showing it could be the kick up the arse champions need to win championships.oh and fuck off mourinho with this ‘little horse’ bollocks!twat
Some say it’s a ‘death run’ of games we’re in at the moment, but after that awful display, the next 2 games are absolutely perfect for us. The game against Man U will be the perfect chance to bounce back, then a chance for revenge against Liverpool after that. God, how sweet it’ll be to dump them out of the cup!
No width, energy or pace to our play.
We were far superior when the substitutions were made. I’d take Podi and Rosicky any day over OG and bugeyes
I couldn’t look at 2-8 as your vote tally anymore.
This match slots in between the 8-2 and the 6-3 pastings we have taken in recent years – the Man U was by far the most embarrassing and painful, whilst the City game we actually played well and it could easily have been 5-5 seeing as we had goals disallowed and there were penalty decisions not in our favour. This one we played much better than we did against Man U that day. Liverpool deserved to go ahead with some scarily fast attacking play that would’ve got results against most other teams. They’ve comprehensively battered Everton recently and anyone who… Read more »
Pretty depressing day, isn’t it? But let’s keep things in perspective: we’ve just dropped three points, that’s all. Whether we had lost 1-0 or 5-1, it’s still just three points dropped; and Liverpool are looking like a pretty tasty side at the moment – a defeat there is nothing to be ashamed of. This doesn’t excuse the performance: we were utter shit, especially in that first half. What is it about the north-west of England that makes us play so awfully? But with City surprisingly dropping points too (how come nobody seems to be too bothered about that shock result?)… Read more »
I had to listen to the game on radio5. Fuckin chris waddle and other told u so commentators creaming themselves about liverpool. shit performance, shit result and surgery needed in the summer but fuck me we are only a point off top spot. big response required.
Why do we allow ourselves to be humiliated? It has happened so many times in the last few seasons, I really don’t know what’s the reason behind it. Sure, other teams have had shitty games, but they’ve never allowed themselves to be humiliated like this, time and again. And on that note, when’s the last time we’ve done something like this to a good team? Arteta was so fucking clueless as to what was going on around him today and he’s supposed to be the experienced one. It just hurts so bad. Why can’t we hurt anyone else like that?… Read more »
Dan D u are right. I think the boys are tired and out of steam. It showed against Southampton and Crystal Palace. And honestly if Arsenal don’t get more direct in their approach to these games, the deathrun will well and truly the death all the endeavour so far in the season.I suggest Podolski and Rosicky be included in these big games along wt Giroud. You can count on it that we won’t be able to pass any of the top teams to death.Liverpool showed it today that with all our passing we may not make much hay with top… Read more »
Hopefully, these players have still got some pride left to fight and make sure this February turns out different from previous ones.
Don’t understand why Gibbs and Rosicky didn’t start this game ???
Gibbs should be infront of Monreal in big games
Rosicky is the only midfielder who starts games well right from the kick off
On Wilshere …
Wilshere played brilliantly but his primary job today should have been to help the holding midfielder Arteta, they don’t seem to communicate at all
Ramsey and Walcott are two players we are missing the most …
Lets Win against United and get back on track asap
I agree with everything except the part where Wilshere played brilliantly – he did not by any stretch of the word. He was far too positionally indicplined and was caught up field numerous times leaving Arteta isolated, and I have to say his petulant attitude as the game went on irritated me.
I disagree with the Wilshere bit, he got back often enough. You don’t want an Arteta-Flamini situation where our midfield has no offensive capabilities. Instead, we needed to defend as a team and defend deep, like earlier in the season. it doesn’t matter how close Wilshere was to Arteta, If Ozil loses the ball on the halfway line to the quickest attack in the prem, and both full backs are 30 yards higher up the pitch for no reason, you’re in for a bad day.
Ozil again show his bad attitude..no hand shake with Wenger after been subbed yesterday..this £42 man still feels that he must be given superstar treatment by everyone at arsenal..come on ozil, this is no Madrid..chin up n move on..give all the best for your team..Madrid have modric now..we are in the midst of getting our 1st BPL trophy after ten years.
Yes we were shite, but i’m not sure Bayern Munich, Real Madrid etc could have stopped some of what Liverpool tried today, everything they touched turned to gold, it was just their day, and we ran into it. If you want to take some very very minute postive, this might be the kick up the arse we needed for the next two months of fixtures coming up.
You guys are Fu**ING NUTS we aint winning no league.
There is 0 pace in this team to catch anybody on the counter attack, both the wide players want to cut in all the time.
We never ever put a cross in for the big man he’s left fighting for scraps every game. Which other team in world football uses a target man and never makes a cross in a game its amazing.
Disappointing game is an understatement.
A question for my fellow gooners:
How many of the Liverpool team members would realistically fit into the current Arsenal side?
1. Suarez, 2. Sturridge, 3. Gerrard?, 4. Coutinho???
Nobody else in the consideration set, and yet they sizzled and we played like novices.
Just can’t understand days like this, especially when we need tough performances in this month.
COYG rise up again ….
mehh
Worst thing is, at HT I kept telling myself..”remember Newcastle came back from 4-0 down at half time”.
Then I remembered that it was against us..just as the scousers smashed in the fifth. I had drank all the beer at that point out of despair. It was supposed to last three games. I slapped myself in the face. Hoping to wake up. I didn’t and my face hurt.
What we saw yesterday was the case in point that Rosicky should be starting ahead of any of the other midfielders, especially away. His drive and closing down made a big difference when he came on. He needs to start especially whilst we are missing Rambo’s industry.
There was a freak early goal but we could have responded instantly up the other end. We didn’t, and for me this the is the root of it, because Giroud gets found out against decent defenders. He can look good against mid-table teams but when he comes up against someone who he can’t out-muscle, he doesn’t have the quick soft feet or pace to worry them otherwise. So many times yesterday, he got a ball played to him, back to goal and just mis-timed it or got moved off it. This stopped us getting any control on the game and… Read more »
I don’t think I have ever seen us pass so ineffectively nor our collective first touch so poor! Embarrassing if fucking right. I had to rewind the video a few times to find where our fullbacks were, and or, our wide midfielders to see if anyone was playing against Sterling. Maybe I am wrong but has Henderson or Coutinhou (however that little shit spells his name) had a better game? Or did we just make them look good? I will be happy to watch a drumming of Manure on Wed, however unlike Chelski, we get to play them at full… Read more »
Yesterday was for me like watching a lived one being beaten bloody and not being able to do anything! I love my club and haven’t missed a minute of arsenal first team football for a couple of years, yesterday im afraid seemed predictable because we have beeen lucky not be punished recently at Southampton and palace. I just hope this is the Bayern munchen of this season to help us get to the stage where we don’t need to be shocked and dismayed by being dominated by teams on our level to get ourselves into gear. I beleive, truely that… Read more »
While Ox was one of the best of a bad bunch on the day, his performance highlighted something that worried me since Walcott’s injury. The talk was that Ox and Gnabry were capable of filling in for Theo, some even suggested they were better options outright, but they lack Theo’s offensive punch. How many times did Ox wander infield and find himself in the CM position when he should have been hugging the touch line, trying to get in behind the defence or getting a flick on from Giroud? How many times was he behind a break instead of in… Read more »
Ozil needs to be more aggressive with the ball. He needs to be making more attacking runs we saw glimpses of his ability to run at players couple of matches ago Wenger needs to sit him down and get him to be a more aggressive player, driving forward and taking shots on goal. Surely his passing ability and accuracy can be used in taking shots at goal.
The 1st half of the anfield game was bad the team had no chance against some of the pace & shirt pulling frm liverpool, before the 3rd goal ozil was pushed slightly to the floor, wilshere was being hard tackled before he squared up to countinho, sterling was
hassling sagna, apart from that the reds had their goal protected, our team afc need to learn & watch these styles we play against pacey players 1st half alone showed coyg