Monday, December 23, 2024

Report: Arsenal 2-2 Swansea

Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Flamini, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Cazorla, Giroud

Subs: Fabianski, Jenkinson, Bellerin, Kallstrom, Sanogo, Gnabry, Podolski

Arsenal’s season lurched from one bad game to another with a heartbreaking 2-2 draw with Swansea at the Emirates tonight. Arsene Wenger made just one change from the team that was embarrassed against Chelsea, bringing in Mathieu Flamini in place of Lukas Podolski. Update: Obviously Vermaelen for Koscielny too.

The manager clearly wanted to give his players a chance of redemption, but in the first half he certainly didn’t get it as the Gunners went in behind at the break.

The goal came in the 11th minute when Wilfriend Bony got on the end of a Taylor cross from the Swansea left, rising above Thomas Vermaelen and planting an unstoppable header in at the near post. Just what Arsenal didn’t need.

Despite the crowd trying to rouse the team, we struggled to create much at all. A Mertesacker header flew into the side netting from a corner, and late in the half Santi Cazorla forced a good save from Michel Vorm as he twisted and turned to find some space for himself.

At the other end, Mathieu Flamini spared further blushes, getting back inside the area to stop a Swansea break which saw them 4 on 3 and from which they could easily have scored.

The half-time whistle was greeted with a smattering of boos around the ground, the promised response from the players was nowhere to be seen.

There were no changes at half-time as Arsenal looked to get back into the game, and they started the second period on the front foot with the crowd urging them on.

A Kieran Gibbs cross played into the perfect area should have created something for the Gunners, but there was no Arsenal player in the box, while Michu miscued a half-chance at the other end.

Another Gibbs cross rebounded off Flamini and went just wide before Arsene Wenger made his first change, replacing Oxlade-Chamberlain with Lukas Podolski.

Tomas Rosicky then shot over from outside the box, before Michu spurned a good chance to get a second Swansea goal, heading over from 10 yards when the visitors found space down the Arsenal left.

Arsenal huffed and puffed but the problems were summed up when Arteta did well in midfield, looked up for somebody wide of him to play the ball to, and saw nobody. The Gunners were crowded into the centre of the pitch with little width, giving Arsenal no outlet and making it easy for Swansea to defend against.

But in the 73rd minute Arsenal were level. Kieran Gibbs did brilliantly to get beyond his opposite full back, he pulled it back and Lukas Podolski prodded the ball home from close range.

Less than a minute later, the German turned provider, putting in a wicked ball from the left hand side which rolled past the Swansea defender, allowing Olivier Giroud to poke home from close range and take the lead.

It was an amazing turnaround, especially as Arsenal hadn’t looked like scoring at all, but a very welcome one all the same.

Arsene Wenger then gave a debut to January loan signing Kim Kallstrom who replaced Rosicky in the 79th minute as the reds tried to hang onto their lead. Bony had a good chance to score with a free header after Podolski squandered possession in the Swansea half.

It was nervy stuff and the visitors found space behind when Cazorla failed to track a run  but the cross was blocked. Sanogo replaced goalscorer Giroud in the 88th minute, but just before injury time there was heartbreak for Arsenal as Swansea equalised in a gutting way.

Swansea broke into the Arsenal box, Mertesacker got a touch on the ball, Szczesny then got a toe to clear it but instead it rebounded off Flamini and into the net. It was hugely unfortunate, and coming so late in the game there was no way back for Arsenal.

It makes the weekend’s game with Man City even more important, but Arsenal will have to improve massively to get anything from that game based on tonight’s performance.

 

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Mooro

Watched that particular bag of dogshit in the excellent Blind Pig, NYC.

Not a great move to watch the TV in the corner with the poster below it – ‘First Aid for CHOKING’

In fact may ask the good people here if I can take it home for The Arsenal.

Previgo

What more can I say?

k

Lackluster.

shanthDK

Anyone who can tell me what exactly is Arteta’s contribution to the team? I know Giroud scored a goal but he’s simply not good enough to be first choice striker for our club. This is ARSENAL!!! But some of these players make us look like a mid-table team..

We need big changes this summer! I love Wenger and still think he should stay but he should consider whether he thinks he can move the club forward or if we’ll always just be a team fighting for fourth..

Remember the invincibles

Giroud was rubbish. If poldi hadn’t laid it on a plate for him he would have missed. I half expected Giroud not to bother with the run in the first place.

GoonTang

Every time he gets the ball in front of goal, with his back to it of course, the movement of his legs always mesmerises me – and not in a good way. It’s like an audition to be a Chippendales dancer.

Bould's Eyeliner

Arteta has been a little off of his usual immaculate distribution this season it feels like, but I wouldn’t say he lacks contribution at all. He still passes quite well, and he still tackles quite well, and has been a consistent holding midfielder for the team. Can I take this moment though to say Kallstrom might be just the holding midfielder we needed, box to box aggression? He was the most positive thing I saw tonight. I’ve long supported Giroud but yes, except for one well timed moment with Podolski, I feel like he’s becoming an airhead. He’s excellent at… Read more »

Bould's Eyeliner

If you look at the invincibles team, the key difference I don’t think was talent, but that the team itself knew what it wanted to do. The leaders on the pitch looked, pointed, gestured, instructed, they made it clear what they wanted to happen. They were invincible because most of the time, they made it happen. Our team is good, but sometimes it just doesn’t look like they know what to do… It’s an alarming feeling of insecurity that I have not felt since last season.

Dracular

What the heck was Kallstrom doing on the bench?

GoonTang

He was probably one of the few highlights of the game. Hope he starts at the weekend.

heroldgoon

its probably prudent to not get your expectations high up too much. You know us AFC fans we like to bash players after we see about 10 minutes of them then spend the entire season hating them instead of yourself for getting your hope up too fucking high.

heroldgoon

*Praise not bash

Mark

Kallstrom did OK with the ball, but certainly seemed a bit off of the pace and unsure where to be. Can’t expect much from someone that hasn’t played in 5 months and this is his first action with Arsenal. Blame that on Wenger for having him as the only real option when he had all of January to find someone to play defensive mid as he can surely see that Arteta is past his sell by date there. I would rather have seen Jenkinson come in at right mid, Arteta dropped back and Carzola to attacking mid instead of having… Read more »

easy tiger

agree and that is scary, a sparta moscva sub is an immidiate super player at arsenal….

heroldgoon

Yeah should have started upfront.

Du'aine

He’s got a fine club of a left foot though.

k

Some fucking ‘Response’

heroldgoon

Im glad Giroud isnt giving interviews or talking at all for that matter i dont think i could handle it. my head would like explode and my balls burst from the anger in them.

Fest Arse

It was awful, disappointing, painful, then there was Podolski’s awesomeness then back to disappointing and anguish. I just laughed at my pain.

Macduff

You’d think we would be used to it by now

piya

The season isn’t over in March for the first time in ages. We’ve been playing without our best player of 2013 and our top scorer from last season.

Anyone would call it progress.

Now can one of the Germans drape a shirt over Khedira and Draxler this Summer?

Runcorn Gooner

They were obviously trying but lack any idea of how to move forward effectively.We are seriously missing our injured players
particularly Ramsey and Walcott.
Really worried about Citeh on Saturday

Remember the invincibles

Trying isn’t good enough when you play for Arsenal. Only winning is and winning with style. However, in recent times Losing and losing like this has become the hallmark of our All time great champions league trophy side.

Arsene Nose

3rd/4th and the FA cup please.. Yes thank You

Garo14

Forget 3rd. We look absolutely clueless at the moment 4th at best, but I can see that being a real struggle after tonights result. Can only see us losing to Man City and then I guess it depends on which players we have back for Everton away. But if we put the same team out as we did tonight then I’d expect Everton to beat us too, and if they do then I can see them finishing above us unfortunately.

I’m not even confident we can win the F.A. Cup with this team of bottlebanks!

remember the invincibles

lets go for 3rd!

Remember the invincibles

Guess two minutes of quality doesn’t make up for 90 minutes of tripe. What a bunch muppets these players are. They’ll talk about a response(again) and Man City will drag us through mud(again). We’re fighting for top 4(again) and we might just scrape it( again). Not because we’ll have played well, no but because we were a little less shirt than Spurs.

Toure Motors

Can put good money on us going 2 or 3 down in Saturday and ‘fighting’ back to lose by two or more goals. This team always ceases to amaze me…

Remember the invincibles

The only question is how many own goals will we score?

Viswaram

Actually it is Everton we have to be worried about. They have a game in hand and are 6 points behind with a game against us at Goodison Park still to go. Seriously worried!!

shanthDK

Anyone who can tell me what exactly is Arteta’s contribution to the team? I know Giroud scored a goal but he’s simply not good enough to be first choice striker for our club. This is ARSENAL!!! But some of these players make us look like a mid-table team..

We need big changes this summer! I love Wenger and still think he should stay but he should consider whether he thinks he can move the club forward or if we’ll always just be a team fighting for fourth..

Shade45

Football is a Business.

The reason Wenger will never be sacked is because he is the ONLY manager who can make the club profits year after year and achieve RELATIVE (very literal meaning) success. If you were a businessman, you wouldnt sack the person who makes you the most money possible ,whilst keeping the company’s success at a constant level, to replace him with someone who will come and slash profits.

At the end of the day, It’s a buseiness

Mr Sweaty

Its so sad to think after all these months of me saying these pundits are wrong, Arsenal won’t crumble in March like they used 2, I may have been proved wrong. Only way we’re in the title race is if we beat Man City AND Everton away. All of a sudden Everton are only 6 points behind us WITH A GAME IN HAND and we got them at Goodison. Fight for 4th again probably and not convinced that we will win the FA Cup. In all honesty I would rather play Man City in semis than Wigan as all the… Read more »

goonerbynature

Fuck this. I just laughed at the own goal and laughed even harder when the full time whistle went. Giroud is a liability. That’s one of the worst goalscoring performances I’ve seen.

When it rains, it pours.

goonerbynature

*full time whistle when Swansea were through on goal and he blew

Neil

I almost feel sorry for them for that. If that happened to us (it did once this season at the end of the first half against Stoke) I would be fuming.

Got lucky there. Reminded me of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JFuWqwFg4

Remember the invincibles

Bet they would’ve scored it. Mertesacker had given up. Why was he playing in midfield today? Not confident about our ability to ship goals with him in defence? Chelsea will attest to how difficult it can be

tom

It’s at that stage now where I laughed as well! In fact without the Swansea equaliser the cracks would have been covered up (again). Let’s face it, who gives a fuck whether we beat mid level teams now that it’s plainly obvious the big boys fuck us in the ass 6-3, 5-1, 6-0. Leave the cracks exposed, maybe Arsene will see the light beyond his ignorance.

abc123

I laughed pretty hard to, not just today but on Saturday too. It’s an embarrassment

aussie gooner

But Hold up play? Giroud is the best striker in the world because he can hold up play. what don’t you understand? do you expect him to score goals out of nothing? or open up the play? or show some movement? how ridicilous are you? as long as he can stand with his back to goal and play it back to the midfielder who passed it to him, he’s arsenal quality mate

k

Gibbs finally remember he’s fast and can take on players

benvnc

At least nobody’s made a stupid Gibbs/Ox joke… yet

paddymac

Self destruct button: Engage.

G-man

When that own goal went in, I screamed so loud that I woke my son up. I had to change his nappy and apologise profusely whilst my girlfriend glared at me. Yes. Even my son had shat himself, he doesn’t even understand what’s going on yet and he’s 2…poor thing. I just hope the Arsenal he inherits is a team he can be proud of as I wouldn’t wish this heartache upon anybody.

DL Gooner

If hes gonna be a future arsenal fan he will many more shitty pants to come.
I think Szczesny might be getting a little to cozy again knowing Fab is off in the summer,i would have no problem dropping him for a couple of matches. I have nightmares about them conceding a stupid OG like that in the FA cup final.
We all need to channel the force of Rambo…….only he can save us now!

reality

We need a striker like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUfCF2bV-_4&feature=em-subs_digest

Someone that can dribble the ball past more then one person and actually put the ball in the net. If i saw giroud do something along the lines of the video I would shit myself and eat my hat….

Overall hard to watch this game. Thanks god podolski showed up for a few minutes.

Julio Baptista's humble alter ego

What a goal that was

Aks Arsenal

WENGER OUT WITH HIS GIROUD.
Giroud is not going to improve like Ramsey because he is not at the age of 22,23…….
Its Wenger’s fault to not buy a striker in SUMMER and obviously in WINTER.
NO PLAN B SINCE……ummmm….?
No Tactics against big teams.
Win Us the FA CUP WENGER For our patience for so many years and please leave.

Whispering Whippersnapper

Because it’s Wenger’s fault that an own goal rolled in on the stroke of injury time…

Cyprus The Immortal Gooner

So the only problem you identified was our “bad luck” on the 90th minute??

Whispering Whippersnapper

Half the negativity on this page wouldn’t be there were it not for that goal

Just saying…

I’m entitled to a positive opinion just like you are your negative ones.

Cyprus The Immortal Gooner

It’s not a matter of my negativity but one of reality. I wouldn’t be happy in a way even if we won because I didn’t like the commitment of our overpaid & overprotected players. That’s not the reaction I expected after a 6-0 hammering and not the response I expected after losing 0-1 to Swansea in the first 10 minutes. No passion, no leadership and no winning mentality. I won’t even get into the the matter of not signing a decent striker over 2 transfer periods. If you can’t see the above then what more can I say??

Dennis Gunner

Regardless of who is missing, we should still be beating swans at home in our sleep. Nice way to motivate Wenger, you’ve lost the f*#kin plot. Light a fire under them!

goonerbynature

No, but a better striker would have ensured that the freak goal wasn’t an equalizer but a consolation.

Whispering Whippersnapper

And if he ended up injured like Ozil et al?

blame Wenger i suppose?

goonerbynature

No one’s blaming Wenger for Ozil being injured.

Mpls

Beg to differ gooner…
Just read a few of the posts about injury record around here.

Kolololo

No, but it is Wenger’s fault that there was absolutely no tactical thought in our play throughout another dreadful 90 minutes.

Mpls

Oh, sure there was. Midfielders, pass back and forth from side to side, then move toward top of opposing box, send an impossible to handle pass in to Giroud who is surrounded by 4-5 defenders and don’t continue your run to get it back. And for god’s sake, nobody else make a run. That would be silly.

easy tiger

The own goal came from something, we gave up playing when we took the lead. Arsenal should not be outplayed at any moment against Swansea…….. We conceded because we are at the moment incapable of anything……

Bunburyist

No focus, no concentration, no resilience. Is this the kind of team you think can win the FA Cup?

Same old. Another desperate fight for fourth place beckons, and that is all.

Larry

City should be fun!

Bunburyist

Unfortunately, I have an appointment to watch some paint dry when that game is on.

Let me know what I miss.

Kolololo

Fuck this shit.

Aussie gooner

Not a wenger out post, but I can’t understand the insistence on playing players into form. I love the ox as much as any gooner but he had a shocker against Chelsea. Why play him today? When you have a player in gnabry who has shown he’s good enough against opposition of this level before, and who also wouldn’t have suffered the effects of Saturday as he didn’t participate. Yet once again wenger is insisting on playing a player through his bad form instead of giving him a mental and a physical rest for a week. And why our fullbacks… Read more »

MTZ

I completely agree. I was baffled when I saw the line up. Ox probably played his worst game ever against Chelsea, so I honestly expected him to be a 60-min sub for a few matches until he gets his form back.

You can’t just continue to play someone who’s playing poorly. What does it take to be out of the starting 11? Solid performances should be the only way to guarantee a spot in the team, or the players will become complacent.

zilla

arsenal till i die !!! Hell we still got the F.A cup and great chance for fourth position yet again sigh

A Yank

Well at least we didn’t lose. That’s improvement, right?

zilla

that made me laugh haha

shitbird

Well, that’s the pattern this year… get spanked, then get a draw.

But still, that first half was somehow more horrible to watch than last week, terrifying even, and save for two minutes the second wasn’t much either. It felt like watching your dog die.

Respect to Podolski though, he almost turned it around for us.

What the fuck is up with Szcz? Hasn’t been the same since the Bayern game. I’d rather see Fabianski in goal at this point.

Fuck.

shitbird

And kicking the ball at Giroud isn’t going to work next week.

easy tiger

Agree, and that is why I am hoping for a 6-0 loss to city, at least then I can dream of a draw at Goodison P…..

Bunburyist

Reminded me of the saying that best defined us for a few seasons (think it was Arseblog who coined it: “Arsenal somehow manage to snatch a draw / loss from the jaws of victory.”

We’ve finally learned how to choke again.

Mooro

Although nice to see the Arsenal one touch football at work for the 4th goal in that game.

Bunburyist

The booze is helping me cope…and this comment.

heroldgoon

That is what you get for not starting kim kallstrom.

goonerbynature

He was really good wasn’t he? Also surprisingly mobile, which we lack in the DM department with Arteta. I’d like to see him start against City. Also he’s fresh and hopefully up for it.

abc123

The pundits were right…We’re shite

Larry

It hurts so much

if grey hairs were wishes I'd be Denis

i have a very strong negative feeling towards Arsene and the whole team… for proving Craig Burley correct. I fucking hate that guy

Jake

I stopped watching espnfc due to the shit that twat spouts
(note there is no other regular football show here in oz)

DL Gooner

We are missing probably are four best players, walcott, Ramsey, Ozil and Wilshere. Taking the best 4 players out of any team is going to fuck it up. Saying that the striker situation has been the elephant in the room since last season so Wenger has only himself to blame for that.

MorenoVL

I love my team .. but this is getting embarrassing

WizardOfOzil

What the hell was that at 2-1? Sitting back at home to Swansea????

Dennis Gunner

That’s Wenger for you, no idea how to change his tactics during the game.

bip

Respond my ass

Titus

As painful as…..

This shit.

same same

the match the flaws have once again been exposed severly
The fact has been exposed that we dont learn shit from our mistakes

1) Sloppy passing again for the first 30 minutes
2) Once again got caught on counterattacks with our fullbacks no where to be seen
3) Slow buildup with just too many sideways passes

People said wenger is the right guy to take this club forward
I agree but I am running out of patience with this guy

He is not trying to learn from his mistakes and adapt

Same mistakes still being repeated

Pooner

You know what they say about people who repeating the same things expecting different results…

legrande

No excuses still. All we had to do was keep the lead. immediately we went ahead we got complacent like we had won.
Showed a lot of character to score both goals but showed none to keep the lead.

WengersNoseHair

Interesting. Just above you WizardOfOzil says we shouldn’t have defended the lead, and people agree with him. You say all we had to do was defend the lead, and people agree with you.

WizardOfOzil

There’s more than one way to defend a lead. The current Arsenal method seems to be to drop everyone back behind the ball, sit there, make no attempt to retain possession further up the field and invite a wave of attacks until the final whistle goes hoping that by sheer bodycount, the opposition will fail to score. We’ve gotten away with it quite a lot in the last year or so but the chickens came home to roost tonight. A more professional and gutsy approach might be to push out and deflate the opposition by keeping the ball where they… Read more »

WengersNoseHair

I can’t pretend I know what you’re on about. Defending a lead is defending a lead, no matter how you do it. The alternative is to try to get another goal, not defend a lead some other way.

WizardOfOzil

Right-o. Actually though, keeping possession is a very effective way of closing out a tight game. That’s why you sometimes see lads holding the ball in the opposition’s corner and they don’t look like they’re trying to score another goal.

shoowz caprooooooz

this is appalling.. one of the worst first half performances i have ever seen.. !! no passion, no pace, no creativity and no heart.. !! no one wants to take any responsibility.. !! if this was the response to last week’s 6-0 thrashing, then i dunno what else will motivate this lot.. !!

i am totally flabbergasted as this display.. !! truly worried whether we will even win the FA cup.. !!

spinner

What species of tree is Giroud?

I know he scored but he is most definitely NOT good enough to be first choice centre forward for Arsenal Football Club.

NCGunner

Species of tree or 11 million pound lamp-post?

2013-2014 = 2003-2004

HFT (Handsome French Tree)

heroldgoon

Wenger shouting from touchline: “Score 2 then stop and go get your minds home”

Neil

Too nervous in the first half. Only real positives. We didn’t lose and Kallstrom looks some player. Where’s he been all my life?

D

This really is starting to feel like the beginning of the end for Wenger.

A Yank

Sorta yes. But then I look at the team that was sent out and after about 30 minutes realized “Maybe they’re just not that good.”

Of course that’s Wenger’s fault as well.

D

There’s no shame in leaving the club after the job he’s done. It would be a shame if he continued doing the same mistakes year in, year out and ended up tarnishing his accomplishments. A great man knows when he is no longer great.

Dennis Gunner

He’s not just embarrassing himself. He’s embarrassing the club and its millions of supporters. Is this acceptable?

Howard's Webb

You mean like he already has for the last 9 years! First 500 games 11 trophies. Second 500 ZERO trophies, if that’s not tarnishing his accomplishments I don’t know what is.

Damien

Possibly. But I guess all we can do is keep supporting the team and see what happens at the end of the season. The players will need encouragement from the fans given their fragile mental states. Booing would make it worse and I hate to think what will happen in the FA Cup if their psychological frame of mind gets any worse. *shudder* I’m scared. 🙁

same same

5 minutes of good football in the whole 90 minutes

Clap clap clap
what a performance

roof attack

Same old story. We had no luck again but we have done nothing to earn it. I was at the game and the promised reaction just wasn’t there.

Muse

From leading the table for a good portion of the season to fighting for 4th place – fault lies entirely at Wenger’s feet.

All I will say is that should Wenger decide to leave then I’ll be thankful for what he’s done for the club but also look forward to a new Arsenal (hopefully with a manger not allergic to spending money!).

Dennis Gunner

We cannot lose excuses of the injuries, Wenger. You reap what you sow. Continue buying players who cant play for you or are inadequate replacements for your top players who’ve left or gone down to injury. That should work.

Gutbukket Deffrolla

I’m surprised somebody is still coming out with that old chestnut. We didn’t get Ozil for nothing you know.

Oz

One player!!??? And that was only after fans/commentators/AST put huge pressure on Wenger/Gazidis/The Board after buying fuck all quality for years.

drew

The mental toughness/confidence fluctuates worse than the form of fernando torres

kosballs

There were 2 changes Blogs. Verms in for Kos

abc123

Get’s me excited for Saturday

Martin

How this is even possible? Tell me please…

godonner

Fuck me we,r fucked cant believe we,r fighting for a top 4 finish again

Divju

What the total fuck! what a cheap goal to give away when we need to somehow get our confidence back.

gooner

somebody tell these young millionaires it’s sp*rs and Everton we are racing now and we are in the driving seat.

Don’t fucking panic and blow it up too!

fuck

Sheffield Goon

Awful. Just awful. Gutted for everyone connected to the club.

gooner odst

lets be honest title race was over a while ago, but I was happy after about the 70th minute when some players started actually playing instead of tippy cunty back and forths.

I wonder how much $hitty will put past us though…0? >1? i don’t know but I know for sure they won’t allow us to stroke it about like Swansea did early on.

Pooner

Bad luck with the deflection for the last goal but the unchecked run into the box when we’re 2-1 up at home in the last minute is fits so overwhelmingly with the ret of the performance that you can’t bemoan luck. We were AWFUL. Lose the next two and we could be fifth or even sixth…

Topgunner89

Forget the negativity, how good was Källström?!

Contro

He’s no freddie, but my god, does he know how to pass a ball *swoon*.

Topgunner89

That cross-field to Giroud… shame he didn’t have a pop once he’d controlled it

gooner odst

Agreed, Kimmy showed some determination for what its worth.

drew

The mental toughness/confidence of this team fluctuates more than the form of fernando torres

Contro

I laughed when the commentators on my NBC stream said Gibbs had played well in the game.
The lad is a defensive liability. Im all for homegrown talent, but sometimes we have to accept it for what it is and in this case, it is a player who thinks its ok to walk back when the opposition are on the counter and who also feels it is necessary to give the opponent 10 metres of space.

Despite the assist, I still feel he played terribly.

Contro

All the people voting this down… have ye been watching the matches over the past few weeks? Gibbs is nowhere to be seen when we are being countered. There’s always bloody acres of space on his side of the pitch?? Am I watching a different match?

Seriously, there is a thing called defensive discipline.

WizardOfOzil

Whatever about that it was Gibbs who single-handedly clawed us back into the match by taking on a player when the rest of the team were too busy passing it sidewards to each other outside the box.

papapapap

He bombed forward and bombed back from what I saw… They over committed towards the end though that was ridiculous still pushing on with the full backs

loose_cannon

I think the thing with Gibbs that people forget is that he has never played with a proper left winger ahead of him. Podolski is the closest, and even he would rather be in the middle of the park and said as much last season. He’s effectively being asked to do a fullback and a winger’s jobs at the same time and when Cazorla and Podolski go walkies and the DM doesn’t cover for the fullback (which is in their job description) then of course his flank will look exposed. But we play in a way where both fullbacks go… Read more »

jw

agree completely, Gibbs is so over-exposed in our team

GreekTragedy

Is anyone else just getting a little bored watching us? Our attacks are so formulaic and unless someone provides a spark, we just endlessly pass it until we can get it to Sagna so he can cross it into the box for the two players who have ambled in. I genuinely found us boring and have done for some weeks.

Gutbukket Deffrolla

We had variation 2 today though. No players in the box when Sagna crossed it into the box.

heroldgoon

Players in the box when a cross is coming in at Arsenal? why this is so new!

deano

Comes down to a serious lack of pace through out our attack mate.

Aedan

Why would you send on Sanogo for Giroud when we’re trying to see out a game, when Wenger himself said one of his [Giroud’s] main qualities this season has been his defensive play and tracking back for the team. Yes the team let Arsene down once again, but that just seems so illogical.

Yar

Enough is enough. Vermaelen just standing there as the ball went in for their 2nd made me want to smash my TV. Bleh

Trapped in Wenger's basement

What did you want him to do? Rip out his ball sack and put it in his mouth?

Oxlade give us a game

So so poor Giroud is always the worst striker on the pitch I mean look at Bonny and Michu both would improve our team…watch how they fought and got the free kick when podolski was/should be in control of the ball we just don’t fight when we have a chance to win the ball look at Vermaelen for the first goal he should have smashed him but instead watched him get a free header

Gutbukket Deffrolla

But part of them looking so good is us leaving so much space for them to operate in. We, on the other hand, play so far up the pitch it’s crowded where our centre backs are playing.

Oz

Piss, piss poor. What a bunch of jokers. How embarrassing.

Looks like the old familiar Wenger’s/Gazidis’s favourite 4th place again, then.

2he0 Walcott

Seriously mate, you think were going to finish 4th? Once City have there little way with us and then away at Everton. This could turn out to be a pretty disastrous end to the season.

Pooner

Absolutely, really fearing the worst now. This is the worst result of the season. It compounds the failings of Arsene’s so-called accident and confirms what we all know (including him): that we have real psychological failings when it comes to dealing with pressure, and there is going to be plenty more of that in the coming days, weeks and months.

I love Wenger wholeheartedly but he has to, HAS TO, finish fourth and get that cup or else, rightly or wrongly, the calls for his head will be deafening.

Depressing.

Flambo

Everton’s game in hand is against City, have a little faith and get behind the team despite how shit they have been doing lately

Cheroo

Yes, we have to hope Everton pull a Spurs. Really? From 7 points clear at the top of the table to fourth and barely ahead of Everton on goal differential. It’s not good enough, and it happens every season as soon as the pressure hits except last year when our run in was ridiculously easy

bip

We got no chance against Wigan. Just remember they r the FA cup holders, they will fight but our boys won’t even tackle except rosicky

Maniac

Arsenal trying to walk the ball into the net with no urgency – simply passing it around the box. Then we miraculously go ahead and reward Swansea with no pressure while they move forward; literally waiting for them to score the equaliser. Seriously wtf is going through Wenger’s head with these piece of shit tactics???

Norn Iron Gooner

“Arsenal trying to walk the ball into the net”

We’ve been doing that for at least 7 years now.

Enough is enough.

Maniac

At least we usually have more movement – some darting runs around or in the box perhaps. Now all we have are players standing still waiting to receive the ball only to pass it backwards or hand it over to the opposition. Fucking pathetic, boring football.

Oluwapunkey

Just the perfect response performance we wanted to see…..the sun rises and reality set in now we are back to fighting for the top 4 with everton…we now await a 7-0 defeat to shitty on saturday

Jamie

Looks like Swans can break your heart, as well as your arm.

Pooner

hahaha…

Lasagna

The resault in itself isn’t good but with that performance I find it hard we deserved anything more then a point from that game. Which is very very sad. This team has to improve by miles for the game against city.

La Defense

Källström FTW!

Mate Kiddleton

More Kallstrom please.

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