Danny Welbeck says he’s relishing the prospect of playing as Arsenal’s central striker, and that if he’s given that opportunity he’ll score the goals the Gunners need.
With the arrival of Robin van Persie at Old Trafford, Welbeck was shunted out to the left hand side where his goalscoring record suffered, but he believes that if deployed in the right position, he’ll crack them in for the Arsenal.
“Once I get into the box and am getting the chances, I have got faith in my ability,” he said. ““Before, I wasn’t getting into the box because I wasn’t playing too much as a striker , and I had to worry about my defensive work.
“Listen, anyone can say what they want to say but I just know once I get the opportunity and a run of games up front, I will do my best. That’s definitely what I need.
“It is well known I prefer to play through the middle so when I get my opportunity I just want to show what I can do.”
Meanwhile, Gary Neville has questioned the decision of his former club to sell Welbeck to the Gunners.
“Of all the prices paid this summer, there are right-backs and left-backs galore who have been bought for £14m, £15m, £16m. How have Arsenal got him for £16m? I can’t work it out.
“It has helped out a competitor because Arsenal are the team they are fighting for fourth. I am struggling to work out the logic, I can’t understand it.
“I can’t work it out and I know I worked with Danny Welbeck last week, but it’s odd.”
Odd like Harvey Keitel’s socks if you ask us. And if you ask us how we know Harvey Keitel’s socks are odd, we’re not saying.
That’s him out on the left for the next four months then.
No way. That’s where Ozil’s playing after all- FOR GOD SAKES ARSENE, SHIFT HIM TO THE MIDDLE!
Welbeck left, Ozil CF.
You heard it here first, kids.
Would you really be THAT surprised if/when this happens? In consecutive matches???
As much as his analysis is spot on, he missed a trick here. We are gunning for the title and not the 4th place anymore.
So maybe he should be saying that they are fighting with Sp*rs or Everton for the fourth.
He’s spot on when he says we’re playing for fourth. Trust me, it’ll be much more enjoyable if we go into this season with the approach of Liverpool last year which was roughly, let’s play to our strengths (i.e. blitz on the counter) and score a bucketload, hope that we don’t get caught out too much at the back, and see where we are in January.
Without defensive cover, a title challenge is just a dream not a realistic expectation. Expecting it will just take the fun out of what should be a vintage Wenger-kamikaze-ball season.
Reading through the comments below, I see a lot of very angry words aimed at Neville for this ‘fighting for fourth’ comment. He may be wrong about us fighting for fourth, but that is nothing compared to how monumentally wrong he is about United being in it with a chance for fourth. In fact, I think his intention with the comment was to fire up the United supporters with the fantasy that they have a chance for fourth place this year. Utter delusion, in my opinion. I myself think we will better fourth, but the title challenge will be, well,… Read more »
How are we fighting united for 4th? We led the league for 75% of the season last year, we won the FA cup plus we’ve only improved this summer ffs. Sick of being written off, we need to win the league this year and shut the critics up once and for all.
To be fair, I don’t think Gary Neville is an inherently biased pundit. I can see his logic behind why we are fourth-favourites for the title and he defended us more than anyone else last season.
There is no logic in what Gary said about us fighting for fourth place with United. He is an ex-Manc so he is inherently biased already. The only squad that are better than ours in the Premier league is Man Shitty’s and Chelski’s, so in the light of that, it makes a better projection to say we are fighting for third place instead.
If you look at his comments in full, he said fourth or third. Its not here in full because Arseblog probably assumed noone would be stupid enough to nitpick between not-a-trophy and slightly-less-not-a-trophy.
To assuage your fears about Gary Neville, read – http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/10/gary-neville-attacks-manchester-united-louis-van-gaal-danny-welbeck-radamel-falcao
Or, you know, listen to him speak over a reasonable period of time and recognise the inherent balance in his analysis.
We’ll never shut up the critics. When we win the league it will be, “Wenger has never successfully defended a league title, and hasn’t won the Champion’s League”
Then it will be, “Well Wenger has never won the Capital One Cup”
HAHAHAHHAHHAHA!
As well as, “they’ve only won 15 trophies in 16 years”.
We would need to win the Charity Shield, Emirates Cup, Captial One Cup, league, FA Cup, Champions League, Europa League, and World Club cup all in the same calendar year, with a squad composed entirely of Englishmen that we brought up through the academy, while giving away season tickets for free and paying people to come to the stadium, ten seasons in a row, to shut up the press. And even that wouldn’t shut all of them up.
“Wenger neglects the education of English core by failing to bring in foreign players. England’s national team are failing to keep pace with the likes of Germany and France, and Wenger’s to blame.”
Daily Mail headline in 3 years. You heard it here first.
Arsepedant – If we did that we’d be accused of being too generous, not making people work for their football fix
dude, did you see the way we played against everton and leicester? porous defence, attack not clicking at all…maybe we can improve the latter as the season goes on but…don’t think our defensive frailties can be fixed. Those of you who think we have a realistic chance of winning is delusional, we led for 75% last season but still finish 4th what does that say about us? prone to monumental lapses. Unless we can go on a free scoring run like liverpool, don’t expect anything other than 4th. We’re talking about the league here, not the fucking FA cup. Maureen-ho… Read more »
So why even bother? What’s the point of even trying? Who are you saying is going to win the league … Chelsea? They have conceded more then us. City? They lost to stoke last week.
If it was easy to predict the league bookies wouldn’t exist. We’ve only seen bad performances so far , to me that means there’s lots of room for improvement . Stop being so miserable, the funs just begun
Sorry, I meant to push the the green but it went to red! minus one red and plus one green!
That is exactly what I am thinking by the way!
Yeah, you can glean a lot from the first six games of a post-World Cup season that still has us unbeaten and another trophy in the cabinet.
Three wins and three draws (all away from home) simply isn’t good enough.
blah blah black sheep spews out poo…
yes sir yes sir .. only thing it can do..
come on you gooners…lets fight hard..
that would just shut them right up…
ok…i am not that good at it…
but anyway leave the doom-talk to season end.. if it doesn’t work…if….
You heard the lad, Arsene. Give him games upfront. he’ll score. I know we are getting sufficient stick for signing Webz who is being viewed as a ManUtd reject. But I am certain the the correct tactical approach in formation, he can turn out to be the most talked about transfer by the end of the season, completely eclipsing Fabregas, Alexis, Di Maria. Not to say he is a greater player but to mean he is grossly underrated. Loads of capacity right now with pace, skill and power. Loads of potential for improvement now that he is just aged 23… Read more »
..dumb media…sylvester was the manU reject..
Its nice to see that he has confidence in himself. He made his move to the Gunners and is not afraid to take responsibility. I think this is an important attribute to have (of course in copious amounts it can be a negative: TGSTEL). I am very interested to see how it all works out. He is the kind of player that will make teams afraid to put on the high press (which we struggle with) because of his breakaway speed.
If, and it’s a big IF, we beat City this weekend then maybe, just maybe we’ll be taken as serious contenders! Until we improve against top 4 we’ll always be destined to fighting for 3rd or 4th place!
No one has told Danny he’s been signed to play as a CB yet…
LOL!…probably why the Boss is all quiet until now….come game day Danny finds himself lining up beside Kos….. sorry…
*gets coat*
Need to shut the fuck up those haters.we need to win the league this season.
‘Arsenal are the team they are fighting for fourth’ C*nt.. We might not be strong enough to win in the end, we definately are better than fourth
on what evidence are we better than fourth? no matter where we finish, i just want to watch my boys play football. But i dont get the delusion here that we are better than fourth. Sure ManU will probably finish 8th and so are not gonna compete with us but, that doesnt mean we wont be fighting for 4th come the end of the season.
We are surely not fighting for fourth. fourth is the minimum, fourth means nothing. its a spitfire dogfight for the first this year, and i want Arsenal playing like a sleath bomber, flying to that piece of silverware
In terms of gunning for the title, the match on Saturday is crucial. A win will take us a log way towards being considered a serious threat
Wenger will use him on the left when Giroud is fit. Plus side is that Welbeck is full of energy and I doubt will slack off with the defensive side of things- hopefully we’ll see him establish a good relationship with Gibbs out there.
As it stands, we need to spend a fair amount in January. Player prices are inflated already, and January makes things only worse. Our needs are pretty apparent, as is our bank balance.
Fighting is for 4th my arse. Fuck off Neville!
“It is well known I prefer to play through the middle so when I get my opportunity I just want to show what I can do.”
Now that is the striker mentality that I want. Show us what you can son!!
We’ll only be considered contenders once we improve against the likes of Chelsea and City. I think we can all agree, it was painful watching those games against the teams that (ultimately) finished above us.
We need 3 points this Saturday – not to please pundits, but to instill the belief that we can do it.
I – for one – am getting more nervous by the day (leading up to the game). I really, really hope we fucking twat them. We need a big result!
“It has helped out a competitor because Arsenal are the team
they are fighting for fourth. I am struggling to work out the
logic, I can’t understand it.
What is that man smoking? Who told him we are fighting for
fourth? I think he thought he was talking about Chelsea or
liverpool
must be smoking whatever moyes was on ….
Son go ahead and don the Arsenal shirt for years to come. Hopefully you retire at the emirates a legend, with Chuba taking over from you.
Very much looking forward to this debut for Welbeck, can’t say I was thrilled when he was signed, but now I’m excited to see his potential come to fruition. Love the attitude he’s displaying. COYG p.s. Can I get a poldi cameo #aha
I always have faith against sides that play against us. Its teams like Chelsea that out-think (read bore) us that win. I’m confident we can win IF we drop this ridiculous 4-1-4-1 stuff.
Sczc
Debuchy Mert Kos Monreal (I think he has done enough to retain his place)
Arteta Ramsey/Wilshere (please pick one Wenger)
Sanchez Ozil Santi/Chamberlain
Welbeck
Im confident that this team in this formation can beat City. They think Kompany is world class for fucks sake!
Calum chambers will start as DM ..welbeck on the left with sanchez upfront.
There are so many similarities to the Daniel Sturridge transfer here. I hope Welbeck works out as well as Daniel has for LiverPOO.
Are Gibbs and Arteta back yet? I’m sure Wenger will stick with Monreal at LB, but we could use Arteta beside Jack with Ozil in front of them.
Szczesny
Debuchy Mert Kos Monreal
Arteta Wilshere
Ox Ozil Sanchez
Welbeck
Rest Ramsey just in case. Use Cazorla/Rosicky/Podolski as impact subs and Chambers, Flamini, Sanogo (for set pieces) as defensive subs.
the difference between that, sturridge is being played where he wants. You cannot honestly tell me you are confident wenger will play him upfront.
With Giroud injured til next year, we would have been fighting for 4th, but with Welbz, I believe a dogfight with Chelski for 1st, will be the outcome…
He talk too much !
Stuck him in my fantasy team, might give him the armband.
If we need to be taken seriously we either need to not drop points against top 6 at home or not lose away. Btw spurs are selling out i heard
What’s funnier is mancs telling us we overpaid for Welbeck, when they paid 32m for a 19 y.o. left back, only ahead of Gibbs because of fucking pundits hyping him up like no tomorrow. I’m very confident we’ll see a different Welbeck at Arsenal, under the tutelage of Wenger, playing in his preferred position. Doesn’t seem like he has Henry’s technique, but I’m sure he’d be among the top strikers in a few years time.
4-2-3-1
Szc
Debuchy Mert Kosc Gibbs
Arteta Ramsey
Sanchez Özil Cazorla
Welbeck
Chamberlain and Chambers or secret weapon in the second half. Defend tight and don’t give away any space. Keep it 0-0 till the 70th minute (sub time, opposition status – knackered from chasing Sanchez, Cazorla, Özil and Welbeck) and bring on Chamberlain to add even more pace to attack. Welbeck to score and Sanchez to score. Then on come Chambers and Flame boy to defend or lead
What’s that Danny? Can’t play at left back!! How about DM then?
Hahaha Gary neville can really crack a joke . Doesn’t this cunt. know that arsenal already have 2 trophies since man United last won a competitive fixture.THe pundits can go fuck themselves we are gonna challenge for the title because mesut Ozil will rise and others will follow.we have to beat city and we will.#gunning for glory
But Arsenal are better than van United, Gary Neville.
Sczcesny>De Gea
Ospina>Lindegaard
Gibbs>Shaw
Nacho>Blind
Koscielny>Rojo
Mertesacker>Jones
Chambers>Smalling/Blackett/Keane
Nacho>Evans
Debuchy>Rafael
Campbell>Young
Ox>Valencia
Everyone>Januzaj
Wilshere>Herrera
Diaby>Anderson
Arteta>Carrick
Flamini>Fletcher
Ramsey/Cazorla>Mata
Ozil>Di Maria
Sanchez>Rooney
Podolski+Giroud+Welbeck+Walcott+Sanogo>Falcao+van Persie
Wenger>van Gaal
And we have Tomas Rosicky.
Arsenal fighting for title.
Man united fighting for champions league.
In all honesty, who would get in our first 11 from Utd?
I’d say only RVP, Falcao & Di Maria, but I’m not sure who they’d be at the expense of…actually, yeah, they can warm the bench.
Not sure about all of these… but I like where your head’s at!
It would have been funnier if I just said Man United fighting Tottenham*
Damn it
Shaun the Sheep is on the loose!
If we won the Prem, la Liga, the Bundesliga, the champions league, the Euros and the World Cup, the critics would still say we’re aiming for fourth place in the prem next year.
I love some of the optimism, can’t say I’m as confident.
I think Chelsea will romp it and there will be a huge fuck off scrap for the other 3 places.
If we can get Kallstrom back on loan in Jan I think it could turn the tide in our favour.
Ozil needs to be played as our playmaker and step the fuck up and quickly.
Our scoring ability best in prem its our lack of top class dm worries me were still getting out muscled in midfield as could be the case on Saturday with yaya toure
I think Wenger is skeptical about Ozil in the middle bcos he gets dispossessed easy when he plays thru there, and his defensive work is poor. We need a swashbuckling DM to free him of working that D.
We have midfielders who are defensive, we have pace back in abundance who will press up high and force the opposition midfielders to be more defensive. Stop trying to do the managers job and please stop stressing about one of thee most stable squads in the league. We have more than enough cover at the back as we’ve replaced Vermualen with Chambers who’s impressed for a kid so young, and if Wali gets a knock or two we have Sanches. Or biggest worry is how the manager will cope with all the depth in the squad and keeping all these… Read more »
After Chambers though it’s an unconvincing Monreal or an inexperienced Hayden, or even Debuchy at CB. We might be fine. but it could be nasty; wouldn’t surprise me to see us still looking at CBs and midifleders who might be able to cover there in January. Well, they’d be able to cover for more than just January. You know what I mean.
I would love to see the Coq get a run in a few games as he’s played there in the center of defense for us a few years back and actually did quite well.
We have quite a dynamic squad that’s just lacking some game time and a bit of confidence in key certain players, especially in our “2nd string side” but that will filter down when we have a good run of games.
Rotation will be key IMO.
Oh god, not Coquelin…….couldn’t cut it at the 2nd rate German club we sent him to last season & has NEVER looked the part for us outside of 1-2 Carling Cup matches…..yes, I said CARLING CUP bc it was that long ago since he put in anything worthy of an Arsenal standard performance. And he’s never impressed at CB bruh, just stop it………My biggest shock was not that we didn’t sign a DM or CB, but that he was still on our books!!!
I don’t understand why people are so delicate about pundits’ predictions. We’ve been consistently fighting for 3rd / 4th place for a good few years. The bookies have us as 4th favorites for the league. It’s not some grand conspiracy or injustice.
I think what upsets people is Neville’s implication that the limit of our ambition is to come fourth, which this year it certainly isn’t. Chelsea and City must be favorites ahead of us, but after that I’d say we ought to be third favorites, slightly ahead of Liverpool, who I feel overperformed last year, and have done a massive squad overhaul that may or may not work out. United, on the other hand, are fighting Sp*rs and Everton for fifth and a chance of fourth if one of the better teams messes up.
@catbiscuits….thank you! i honestly dont get it. there’s a big difference between being optimistic and being delusional. for example, i’m optimistic that this is our year despite the fact we arent favorites but i’m not gonna call someone a c*#t for stating that we might be fighting for a position we’ve been fighting for in previous seasons.
people are talking about us leading the table 75% of the way. You do realise we could have been 5th if everton had not lost their nerves?
In all seriousness and with a cool rational mind, i predict we will be fighting for second. City are not as strong as last year and we have strengthened, yet we were only around 7 points of the top which was due to poor results against the big teams. We have already drawn against one of those teams so that’s that done. As for city and Chelsea i don’t believe we will lose this time out.