Kieran Gibbs says Arsenal must take confidence from their FA Cup semi-final victory over Wigan as they turn their attention to the Premier League and the challenge of overcoming Everton in the race for Champions League qualification.
While the Gunners were toiling to a shoot-out victory over Uwe Rosler’s Championship outfit, Roberto Martinez’s high-flying Toffees opened a two-point gap on the Gunners by beating Sunderland 1-0 yesterday at the Stadium of Light.
Hoping the prospect of another day out at Wembley can inspire the squad to overcome their league wobbles, Gibbs praised his teammates for a display of character in front of a nervy crowd.
“The team showed fantastic character today,” he told TheFA.com. “After going 1-0 down, to stay in the game and respond the way we did is a credit to the boys in the team.
“And now we want to use that for the rest of the season. We’ve got a job to do in the last five games of the season so we want to take care of that first and then we can enjoy the final after.”
Despite a five-game slog in store in the league – starting against West Ham on Tuesday – Mikel Arteta says there’s much enjoyment to be taken from yesterday’s Wembley success and the prospect of a first trophy in nine years.
“We’ve got an unbelievable opportunity,” he told Arsenal Player. “We’ve got the hunger and I think we’ve got everything we need to do it. We don’t want to waste that opportunity and we’re going to do it now.
“To get in a final is never easy and you look at Wigan and how we had to fight to beat Spurs first which is really tough, then Liverpool, then Everton and then them. They beat Man City and were the better team on the day.
“It was never easy, they were the cup holders from last year and there’s a reason for that. Today we went through and I’m really happy so let’s enjoy this.”
Both of our LB are so injury prone. How Monreal gets injured so often? Anyway this is toughest league in termd of fixtures. Stay fit and fresh.
It is possible that he never recovers and is carrying an injury virtually all of the time. It may be when the injections won’t work that both he and Gibbs are left out of the team.
Sounds like some kind of dystopian version of professional football but it’s probably quite accurate. Lots of playing through pain barriers and long term damage.
The Cup is important and we need to win it BUT Champions League football is essential for a club of Arsenal’s status! We need to win every remaining game, NO slip ups and hope Everton drop points. Done it before, COYG!!
Bollocks. We actually don’t need to qualify for the Champions’ League. What’s the point of finishing fourth when we’ve got no chance of winning the European Cup? If you think about it, a fifth place finish wouldn’t be such a disaster, here’s why: 1. It would probably mean the end of Wenger. Kroenke only cares about money, and would be so pissed off that he’d probably sack Le Prof. Or Wenger might walk. With a decent new manager we could build for the future. 2. It would reduce the share price of the club and therefore increase the possibility of… Read more »
My worry is that missing out on CL would be used as an excuse for very limited transfer activity. I don’t disagree with most of your points, but in fairness a very shitty Chelsea side won it a few years back. While we’ve not had any luck lately in CL it is a cup and like any other cup surprise results do happen.
You are obviously not a Gooner.
and obviously very stupid
champions league = 30m minimum.
You’re such a troll…
Weren’t you screaming for a world class striker all through the season?
We have a hard enough time competing with oil money for top players. You think it would help if we played the EL instead of the CL?
By your logic, relegation wouldn’t be such a disaster either.
My regret is that I can only thumb you down once.
Worst comment you ever wrote…
Yeah lets not qualify for champions league so we can lose money and not attract the worlds best players to improve..
Your clueless champions league football gives us an advantage over most teams in the world…
No Champions league might be strategically good. Look at Liverpool.
Problem is we ‘d be in the Europa League. Liverpool were out of Europe entirely.
Absolutely correct.The Cup Final is back where it should be at the end of the season.We should concentrate on demolishing every team before that and then concentrate on the cup.We will have a stronger squad by next weekend and should make it count.
Replied to wrong quote.We must be in CL
Here’s to hoping that we can go on that much-needed run now and win all of our remaining games. I realise how tough it’s been for the team in recent weeks with injuries and whatnot, but now is the time to show some real character and get the job done.
Most of our squad are injury prone or unlucky with injuries ! We have to sign more robust players in the future !
We will get 4th.
I think we will get 4th.
I hope we will get 4th.
We better get 4th.
If last season is anything to go by, the above will defiantly be my train off thought, second after second, until the end of the season.
I both hate and admire what Liverpool are doing right now. That should be us. I still can’t come to terms that they are a better all round squad than us. It’s quite clear now Brendan isn’t a lucky manager and they’re not entirely reliant on Suarez. It’s very hard to accept this.
I still think the amount of games they’ve played this season compared to City/Arsenal/Chelski has a huge bearing on their performances and position in the league. But I feel roughly the same as you actually. Just don’t want Chelski to win it!
I disagree that they have a better all-round squad than us. They have better forwards than us. Rodgers is, sadly, a far superior tactician to Arséne. He’s one of the new breed of managers that do everything and spend weeks preparing for one match, as opposed to Arséne who doesn’t really like tactics and focuses instead on player development and gives the players responsibility. Obviously there are some mitigating factors, playing 10-15 games fewer than us, Chelsea and City will help them and they were fortunate with their decisions today, but it’s hard to disagree with your particularly pertinent sentence… Read more »
If they had injuries to Suarez, Sturridge, Gerrard it would be a very different story. We lost Ramsey, Ozil, Wilshere, Koscielny, Walcott for prolonged periods in this season.
I’m sorry but it gets hard to accept the injury excuse when it happens every single season for years on end. Something is up with that, and someone within the club has to take responsibility for it!
Last season we didn’t have many major injuries.
If not us I’m just glad it isn’t someone with endless pockets
Admirable as they’ve been this season, maybe this just proves how big a factor fatigue is. We’ve played 10 CL matches and a few cup games more than Pool. Add to that all the jetting around.
Their injury problems too seem to be much less than ours. Let’s just wait and see next season whether they’re affected in the way we are (provided we somehow manage to scrape into CL!)
They are in their position because of their attack alone. When you are on a good run, everything seems to go in your favour.
Me so horny I have been praying for Liverpool to win the league if we were not in it not because I think BR is a brilliant manager though he impressed me but its more to highlight our failings…. I have felt for years that the problem with arsenal even after we moved to the emirates was NEVER ABOUT MONEY!! It was always tactical naivety and a failure to address the needs of the team!. Jorgen Klopp Diego Simone and Brendan Rogers are showing that even without the Oil Billions if you manage your team right get your tactics right… Read more »
Afraid of change? Nope. Just think sacking the manager is the wrong move.
I’m quite happy to embrace the change from a selling club to one that broke the club transfer record on Ozil and is extending contracts to keep our quality.
Mpls
Even without Ozil this season we could still achieve 4th place so whats the point in spending £42m Just to show that we can?.
In truth Ozil was an accident and came about becos of the vitriol and anger from inaction during the transfer season…and arguably the team did not need him…we were crying for a striker…
We want Quality and it doesn’t always equate to spending £40m or more..
In truth I will take ozil all day but if we had showed more seriousness on Suarez we would have got him..the season may have been different…
His time dive a lot though. Maybe we just need to cheat a bit more?
*team
They don’t have a better ‘all round squad’….they DO have a better manager & back room set-up.
Wenger OUT.
Suárez was a Dalglish purchase, so Rodgers cant take credit there, and their defense have been horrid throughout the season, and their midfield is decent. But Even when they concede 3 goals they score 4. They have the best striker in the world up top atm outperforming both Ronaldo and Messi in both goals and creation of chances. If we had bloody Ronaldo up top, we would without a doubt be top of the league still and probably with a 7-8 point cusion down to second place. Rodgers is a good manager no doubt, but Martinez deserve manager of the… Read more »
lets see rodgers or their squad next year with europe involved and games every 3 days….arsenal was hit by injuries and a fixture list that not even the barcelona of two -three years ago would have coped with…
*of.
Damn you auto correct.
We need to win to keep that status, simple as that.
5 facts:
– Everton will slip up and the Arsenal Football Club will finish in the top 4
– Arsenal will win the FA Cup
– Arsene will sign an extension
– Chelsea will finish the season with no silverware despite their budget
– John Terry and Mourinho are cunts
6th fact. Arsenal fans will moan.
@me so hornsey,
Liverpool.
Chelsea.
Man City.
Which is the lesser of the three evils?
And yes, that’s including that teethy, smug one branda.
*brenda.
That was my fault this time. 😉
Arsenal are not 100% going to win the cup.They could be firm favourites but football is
unpredictable but Sheffield Utd/Hull will know how to get a result.The thing is the gunners
get rattled when put under pressure. All things considered,they shd win the cup.If the gunners can’t get 4th,
most fans have had enough of the fm .If he were to continue,he could continue with his style which has
proven unsuccessful to win the epl.
We have five games to find out.
Who fucking pulled your chain?
It’s so disappointing to see Liverpool marching on. From 7th last season to winning the league.
We beat them 2 times, 2 times.
I hope Sheffield beat hull today
One of the explanations for the current league position is we that we used to have Henry and Bergkamp – now we have Giroud and Sanago.
Yes you do Gibbo, stay fit pls you’ve been awesome.
To digress, if there’s one player I will like to see at Arsenal this summer, it is, Alexis Sanchez, from Barcelona and not Draxler who will cost roughly the same as Alexis. Has pace, strong, a dribbler and also has the stamina. I think we should be looking at him even though Barca has been suspended from the transfer market which I also think will be waived.
“The biggest budget wins the league” said Wenger. Brendan “might” just proof him wrong. I never used to care what Lpool played some 4-5 weeks back cos we were abt 7 points ahead of them. Now I’m hoping EVERTON slips. My conclusion with what has happened so far this season either its injury management, motivation or tactics etc is that over the course of 38 matches, we can’t win the EPL with Wenger.
Have you seen how much liverpool have spent over the past few seasons?
Net transfer spend:
13/14 : 20 million
12/13 : 41 million
11/12 : 35 million
Over those 3 seasons our net spend has been a total of around 20 million which says everything you need to know. If we hadn’t bought Ozil we would have made profit on transfers over the same period.
Liverpool have been without the luckiest team, all they’ve had to worry about was the league. Hence why they have lasted the distance. We have had more competitions played in and major injuries and no player to replace, we were fine until the injuries kicked in. We need to add to the squad and we will be there no doubt.
Yeah. Liverpool playing far less matches is no advantage at all. REALLY! BTW. Didn’t we beat them 2 out of 3 times. Oh also injuries play no role either. I find it amazing that everything seems to be AW’s fault. Can we blame him for the poor London weather also?
I hope we get the same luck as the scousers on Tuesday. Skrtel punches the ball out of the box and no penalty. Suarez dives whilst on a booking. Nothing. Does it again. Nothing. Sturridge diving in the box as usual. Nothing. Gerrard was at it as well.
Good luck the them and all that, but their constant throwing themselves about does my head in. How many penalties have they had this season? About 50 it seems.
How Skrtel gets away with his shirt-pulling antics in every game is beyond me.
Poor London Weather eh? As if our opponents on the day didn’t play in the same condition.
I understand why Arseblogger wants City to win the league over Liverpool, but you can’t ignore the fact that Liverpool have had almost all the planets/stars line up in their favor this season. Knowing their luck with the EPL, their own fans admitted that they would have to not only play extremely well, every external factor would have to go their way also. They have a manager who knows what he is doing and has a philosophy that gets the very best out of the team. They have the best forwards, in the form of their lives. They kept hold… Read more »
One thing that has amazed me is Liverpool’s fitness levels. They must have a brilliant fitness coach. They seem as fresh in the last minute as they do in the first. Gerrard was slow last season, but did anyone see his recovery tackle in the second half? Man, he showed some pace there. Sturridge was always quick, but he looks like an Olympic sprinter now. And they all have so much stamina.
Yep, their improved pace and stamina is amazing. Like ‘Jamacian Sprinters’ amazing 😉
Has nothing to do with the weather during a game. What I thought would be understood was since AW gets blamed for everything why not just blame him for the weather. If you prefer, why not just blame AW for climate change in the world if that makes it clearer.
BTW what game are you referring to since it seems so many games are played in rain.
Come on break the ice! Figuratively “Bad Weather” as subject to blame someone not about match time weather.
not getting a replacement for v persie has cost us the league again without an out n out striker we have struggled ! We can’t get in behind teams our play has became so predictable n slow .only when we changed it to 4 4 2 did we get the ball in the box ist time instead of over playing n getting counter attacked . Maybe this change in tactics could result in less injuys by not overplaying inviting tackles
M A Gunner, we didn’t win the league when we had van Persie. When we moved to the Emirates we had Henry, Campbell and a host of world class players but we did not win anything. The ‘replacement’ argument does not stand up to scrutiny
I think this win has put a lot of confidence back in the squad, just at a time we needed it. Winning all the rest of our matches is very doable, and if we do pull that off we will be in good shape.
But he was a striker who could score 20 + goals a season , n he replaced Henry n he replaced wright who could score 20+ , ATM we haven’t got an out n out striker !
m a gunner, it’s ‘and’ not ‘n’, it’s not fucking hard…