Arsenal have only conceded two Premier League goals at home since 22 September in a stunning run of defensive solidity that has formed the back-bone of their title challenge.
It’s a state of affairs which satisfies centre-back Laurent Koscielny who has urged his teammates to continue their collective attitude towards defending ahead of a tough run of fixtures.
“The team needs all the players on the pitch to do their defensive job,” Koscielny told Arsenal Player on Sunday evening after the club’s latest 2-0 win against Crystal Palace.
“It’s very important because if you want to win, it’s easier when you concede no goals.
“I think the defenders hate to concede a goal so we work hard to keep clean sheets and we did well today. We need to continue to work hard like this for the other games.
“February is a very important for us,” continued the France international as he eyes games against Liverpool, Manchester United and Bayern Munich.
“But the season is long and the other teams will play against the teams who try to win the league so it’s a long [season] and too early to say if we can win the title.
“It’s the team who will be the most consistent in the league [that will win it]. We will see but February and March will be very important for us.”
Fingers crossed we can keep the Mertescielny partnership intact over the coming weeks, as club statistician Josh James revealed last night Arsenal are unbeaten in each of the last 31 league games in which both Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny have completed the 90 minutes.
That’s an amazing record.
Meanwhile Wojciech Szczesny, keeper of 11 Premier League clean sheets this season, says he may make an exception and watch this evening’s clash between Chelsea and Manchester City.
Revealing that he’s not usually that fussed about watching other teams the player explained: “I try not to watch games at home. I try to focus on my own football and my own team. I don’t watch football very often.
“If it’s a big Champions League game then I watch it but Premier League… not really. Of course we know it’s a big game for the table, we know that Man City have had a fantastic record at home so they will be favourites. I might make an exception and watch this one at home.
“But it doesn’t really matter who’s top right now. Of course we’re there now, it might change [on Monday] but what we care about is who’s going to be at the top at the end of the season.”
Two players who cost us trophy now are working well to get us bigger one
Strange what age, maturity, ability and settling in will do for players…..
“Strange”? There was never any doubt.
They didn’t cost us.
Unbeaten in 31! holy batman.
Comments section here does have lots of oddball funny names often like arshavin’s dietician etc but boulds eyeliner sounds has to amongst really wierd ones…
To be honest ‘Gunman’ concerns me more
What kind of art does Arty own?
Where did Dr Baptiste receive his medical training?
Does Mozart favour oil paint or watercolours?
When does Jackio go in the Boxio?? *Gets up and fetches coat…*
HAHHAHAHAHAHA You guys are amazing, i feel like we are a family hahaha Dr.baptiste? answer the question hahahahah
I am so shitfeced right now, monday? hahaha
Was Arsenal named after Arsene or is it the other way around. who is older?
He has fabulous eyes.
some weird fuckers on here alrgiht
Are you annoyed as there are no pets?
Anyone want me to put something in the chelsea and city lasagne before every game?
Who’s playing tonight again? 😉
Woking v Hereford
HAHAHA i like this ↑↑↑ baptiste on steroids.
That’s not what he/she meant you idiot! The big game is Boreham Wood v Basingstoke Town
We should release our newly signed puma at the ethiad tonight.
Sheik Mansour would probably buy it for £500m
I’d take that. We’d probably be able to lower the ticket prices by a pound or two then.
With bit of luck, the puma would bite him in the arse and he will pack his oil canisters and go back home.
It’s a false stat really as we have lost when Koscielny has been sent off
So… not a false stat then, is it?
“Arsenal are unbeaten in each of the last 31 league games in which both Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny have *completed* the 90 minutes.”
I invite you to read the stat again
Now that’s what we called, maturity.
For anyone worried about next Wednesday, here’s a fun fact from the Stoke RFC vs Glazerhawks game:
Number of passes by Wayne Rooney to Robin van Skunk: 3
Yes, three
And even better? All three of those passes came from kick-off.
My, that’s a fearsome forward line they’ve got going there. Bet they get on well in the dressing room!
RVP has scored in every game against Arsenal he’s played in for Man Utd, and Rooney has scored plenty against us as well. On current form we’re the favourites and 15 points difference is no accident, but to underestimate them – in a game when they’re both guaranteed to be up for it – is seriously asking for it. United will not perform as poorly against Stoke, so don’t go writing their obituary just yet.
We lost the last game through fear.
Man utd won titles by harnessing this fear.. Especially last year.
We need to focus on the teams that are having a go at them and whipping them.
They are an ordinary team and if we play them as just another game we will steamroll them.
More worried about Mata than Rooney as far as passing is concerned. Not that I’m especially worried. Fairly confident we will have our revenge.
Mata will soon find that his passing options are limited when he looks up and sees half the manure team floundering on the ground protesting for penalties
We want to just have a right go at manure there defence is all over the place. Respect them yeah but don’t respect them to much. If we are ruthless we could really hammer them and put the final nail in Moyes’s (we are in talks for Cesc to join us) coffin.
Today’s one of those [rare] days I prefer Chelsea unleashing his patented 19th century football. Come ön +spit+ special +cough+ one! Do this for us!
I expect no favours from The Hideous One tbh. Whatever happens, they’ll still drop points along the line anyway.
I’d prefer a draw and here’s why…
No one likes Chelsea and while it may leave us 2 points ahead, it would give them motivation knowing they’ve just beaten arguably the best team in England (whether we like it or not, even as an Arsenal fan, £1billion + wages will buy you the best players) and no one wants Maureen to gain momentum as he’d be insufferable.
If it’s a draw they couldn’t “have just beaten the best team in England” cos it was a draw.
Anyway, the best team in England is The Arsenal.
I should have specified that i’m looking forward to a zero-zero draw.
A 0-0 draw would be sweet as I have Toure and Cahill in my fantasy team.
If any team of the season for the elague fails to include both Kos and the BFG I will be very surprised. Best CBs in the league right now. Kompany/Vidic making mistakes – the end of the big boys defensive records.
Interesting news in some of the papers about RVP coming back to Arsenal! Ha! As if. I think the Puma would eat him alive. Not to mention what the Mertescielny would do to him.
I am told he will probably act as cover incase Kim Kallstrom is injured. But again these are just rumours.
Ha! He’ll probably be injured when we sign him as cover, back where he belongs on the treatment table the bastard.
Seriously though, RVP’s a cunt
Hi, sorry, I’m just wondering if we’re done talking about the ox? Cuz, he played really well. Let’s keep talking about him. Forever. Seriously I’m so happy he’s doing well he’s an absolute lad in the interviews.
…and there’s something regal yet DENCH about how he shaves. Iconic yet subtle.
One hopes his fledgling mutton chops will flourish as surely as his talent will
read this as “Iconic yet stubble”
Nice
Yeah, the Ox is nice isn’t he? He plays nice football and says nice things too.
I am very very confused about this mertescielny stat… Didnt they both play the whole 90 mins in the home game against Dortmund? I checked arsenal.com and it seems they did complete 90 mins.. Or does this stat only take premier league games into consideration??
It does say league games Ano!
I envisage Mertscielny slide tackling him 52 times during training……
I’d personally like Mertscielny to slide tackle Maureen
If they play all the remaining games together. .probability is tht we will win d league.. all d best mertscienly …
What would be more satisfying, A 0:0 bore draw tonight to keep us two points ahead or City sticking 7/8 past Maureens classless wankers to shut him the fuck up?
That’s like having to choose between a Maserati and a Lamborghini ….
The draw as it leaves us 1 point clear and regular service has then resumed. Not sure we’d want City to win as they’ll jump above us again
If Chelski win 1:0 up at moment it would mean Maureen would be an even more insufferable cunt than he is now. However Abu Dhabi united would have finally been beaten at home which may demoralise them a bit and we would be 2 points c lear of both of them. Hmmm …
Sing it “We are top of the league”
Okay.
WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE, SAY WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!
So the press is surprise surprise wrong again. Talked up City and their attacking ‘juggernaut’ but have been found out. Personally think Mourinho as odious as he is is a master tactician and has given both Pellegrini and Wenger a class here. We played with minimal cover in the middle against City and played the price. nor did Wenger remedy the situation. Mourinho worked out nullifying the City middle and attacking them down the flanks and it paid dividends As for City as I have been saying, we are close to equal to them in depth with quality and quantity… Read more »
Hopefully man shitty might have a poor run now. Downside that arrogant cunt Maureen is going to be insufferable for a while.
For a while? when has he stopped?
OTOH, he is a very very astute tactician and we can learn some things from him.
We were porous in the middle against City with just Flamini over loaded. Wenger sat on his hands.
We had opportunity to hit them out wide but did not fully take advantage of it.
Credit Mourinho at least for understanding the deficiencies in the City set up (cos he knows Pellegrini quite well)
We need to take some lessons from this one but mainly, we go to Liverpool next and must win there.
I saw that Terry said they had been studying how to beat city all week, for all of Wengers strengths, fashioning a game plan based on the opponent is not one of them. And no, I do not consider hanging on for dear life against Dortmund and then catching them on a lucky break to be a game plan.
So every match Chelsea win is due to Mourinho’s brilliance and every time they lose it’s down to poor performance by the players. Yeah right…..
Mourinho spends time working the stupid sports media in this country, Wenger just does not give a toss. Just my opinion of course
fuck Terry
To be fair Dortmund were hanging on for dear life at the Emirates in the last twenty mins and pinched a win late on so I think 3 points each in the group was fair. The thing about that cunt is that he is a younger version of fergie he hasn’t shut up all week. Apparently in his post match conference he says the physio did the team talk: My arse yet the press will lap it up he is a good at what he does but not a bloody messiah people get carried away. Seriously he has been whinging… Read more »
Shitteh don’t score at home for the first time in 61 matches, they lose at home for the first time this season (which has hopefully shown other teams/the press that those wankstains aren’t infallible).
And you’re telling me that John “Thundercunt” Terry spoke an entire sentence?
Fuck me, this has been a mental day.
This is a valid point – to be fair to the poster, he was talking about this particular game and whichever result you were wanting, I would suggest a majority fancied City to win this. So for Chelsea to come away with the 3 points, and a clean sheet, you have to give Mourinho credit where its due. Wenger has been on record (I believe?) saying that we set ourselves up according to our game and our abilities regardless of the opposition. Would be good to see us maybe tinkering with this approach slightly for the 2nd half of the… Read more »
Now, look at the league table.
I Agree. I dont think it is coincidence that Chelsea and Mourinho were the ones to end City’s home dominance. I think the Return game against City and Chelsea will be the deciding matches this year. Unfortunately for us though, Wenger have Never beaten Mourinho ever, and it is an away game aswell, so not to confident of our chances there. City gave us a whooping last time, and our praised defense was made to look like Sunday footballers. But its a home game next time, and we would be out for some Revenge, so more positive about that game.
santori, perhaps it has something to do with fernandinho, na$ri, and aguero missing? re: midfield, demichelis for fernandinho says it all really.
Just wish city had drawn. A 2 horse race is better than a 3 horse race… but chelsea winning could be just the medicine. sort of knocking invincible mentality off them and handing the coming teams an initiative to beat them. on the other hand chelsea are always culpable to draws or crazy 4-3 losing games. As we have a clear run to the title.
Mike Dean seemed to have a decent game tonight…how come he’s such an odious jumped up prick every time he referees us?!
Didn’t he miss a clear red card in this match? Virtually identical to the one that saw Arteta sent off against Crystal Palace earlier in the year?
We are the real winners tonight. Hopefully, there is genuine weakness in Man city that can be exploited by other teams.
Also, for all Chelsea’s good play they found very hard to score. Again, I hope that will make them lose some points in future as well.
All looking good for arsenal.
I love 2 points clear on top of the table. COYG. Beat mugsmasher fot the next.
2 – The Ox had score against Crystal Palace
2 – Unknown team he had forgotten having match fixture the next day
2 – Points clear on top of table
2 – Times The Gunner reclaim the top of the table this season
That’s just 2 nice.
It will be nice to see gunners keep clean sheets, these big games approaching will be tests nothing new for arsenal fc, coyg
Everybody’s talking about what the best result would be–anything that leaves us top!
Sure, it would be nice if City had a bit of a wobble after this, but the best thing would be if we just keep the pace and then beat both of those packs of cunts in the next two months.
That would be nice, yes.
I would settle for us never winning the title again for 15 years if we can win it this season.
The feeling of smashing the plastic, Sugar Daddy bastards would be beyond an orgasm.
I may well be the first person to expolde with joy, but it will be worth it.
Chelsea and City: Bus and Goals = weakness disguised as strength
Koseznysacker: (kallstrom + lone lone striker)/solid foundations = strength disguised as weakness
Meterscielny will have a stern test over four games coming up.
Also perhaps more important is Arteta (to stay fit) and whoever sits alongside him to shield the back 4.
I would prefer Jack which allows Chamberlain to work RW but Ox in Ramsey’s absence is a great alternate in the centre too. There is also of course Rosicky who would risk a nose job to be on the pitch.
Another myth perpetrated by media and fans alike … Wenger is crap at signing defenders and developing them. Remember that? Ranks with Wenger must buy MVilla, Gustavo or Wanyama for plenty of dosh. Or Wenger only won the titles in his early days because of George Graham’s back 4. Well …Wenger was much derided by the Red card prone penalty charitable Koscielny when he signed him. He was also derided for the ultra slow Metersecker whom many said was a player ‘past his prime’. Conveniently ignoring Wenger put together much of the Invincibles’ defense not to mention was responsible for… Read more »
Neutral has a point there. The difference btw Wenger and Mourinho is diligence in game preparation. The latter studies his opponents, like he did against City, and adopts a game plan but the former doesnt. This difference may ultimately be the diff btw winning trophies and being also-rans.City beat Arsenal by a high scoreline cos the midfield didn’t protect the back four enough, a job Matic and Luiz did well against City. Hope we’ll be pragmatic enough in February and March or we may well kiss the title goodbye.