Aaron Ramsey is hoping Arsenal’s 2-0 victory at Manchester City can spur them on to a successful second half of the season.
Santi Cazorla’s penalty and Olivier Giroud’s header capped off an impressive defensive performance that ended City’s 12-game unbeaten run and helped the Gunners back up to fifth in the table.
Reflecting on his side’s tweaked tactics, Ramsey confirmed that he and his teammates had worked hard to minimise the creativity of David Silva.
“We felt in the past we were a bit too open and we definitely defended as a team today,” the Welshman told Sky Sports.
“We didn’t give them any room in the middle to get in those little pockets that Silva likes to get into. We forced them wide and we dealt with it. Obviously we took advantage of our situations going forward as well.
“We’ve come here a few times and we’ve been a bit too open. We wanted to put things right and fortunately we did.
“Everybody else won this weekend so it was important for us to get the win as well. Hopefully we can build on this and have a good second half of the season.
“We’re still in the Champions League and the FA Cup and there’s a long way to go in the league. We’re in a good place, we’re behind each other and hopefully we can kick on now.
“It’s not an easy place to come [the Etihad], so many teams have been on the wrong end of results here. City have made this a bit of a fortress, but we’ve done well today. We’ve got the win and hopefully we can bounce on and carry on this winning run.”
You can’t help but feel it’s a turning point. As Mesut said recently – ‘we’re going for the league’… makes you think….
Looked alot like Mourinho had called up Wenger and made some suggestions on how to organize his team. Classic Mourinho football and it paid off. I hope this is a turning point and that Wenger will continue to be cynical when it is wise to do so. Allthough It is commendable to allways want to entertain, But sometimes, if your ambition is to fight for trophies, you cant go away against City, Chelsea and the like playing with high risk and sending both fullbacks up to attack in sync and expect not to get punished. Good to see Wenger take… Read more »
Monkey off the back and some real belief, players still coming back. Confidence now sky high string of victories on the horizon!!!!!
Monkey?
9 dislikes, wow. For not getting a joke?
Not really a joke but more of a saying. Basically he’s saying a huge load of pressure is off now that we actually beat a top team in the league.
Like a player getting that crucial first goal is the monkey getting off his back, and allows him to go on and score many more.
Yeah I realised lol, just one of those moments
Lots of Monkey’s have been off our backs in the past year.
COYG
Get in!!!
https://vine.co/v/OjIvah0mFYe
Makes me so happy
Kos is so important, Ramsey is great, loads of energy and will only get better. Mature players, lots between 25 and 30. World Cup winners. And a v strong bench.
COYR.
And Santi mate. How good was he today?!
He put in THE best individual performance by an Arsenal player this season (and remember Alexis had an absolute blinder the other day!)
Alexis got a 10/10 for that so I don’t envy Blogg’s task of finding a way to give Santi a 10.1/10 😉
Seriously though, he was golden.
I just hope the Welsh Jesus was knackered at the end of the game and didn’t re-tweak something. That would be unfortunate.
Looked like cramps to me
Hope we play like that when Chelsea come to visit, amazing work from the whole team. Especially good that we can win difficult games when Alexis is not up to his usual 110% too.
Can’t wait for our first win over the classless Mourinio!
Agreed, I thought the team work was fabulous….
But as a few others have noted, such a team performance takes the pressure of Sanchez allowing him the luxury of (by his standards) a less influential game. Win win as they say.
second goal for Giroud v city this season.
At last ,the penny has dropped Arsene.
The visuals of Na$ri watching from the stands#priceless#
What a brilliant performance. Finally we have a plan B. We made the champions look ordinary at home. People always go on about us needing a Defensive Midfielder as if he will solve all our problems. Now I’m not saying that we do not need one. We still need a DMF and a CB however performances like today are not down to the GK, the back 4 and the DMF only. Its about the whole team. Look at the number of interceptions Cazorla made for example. Not one single player under performed today. They played with heart and they were… Read more »
Great win, and it will provide the much needed confidence boost when we play away at WHL and OT later this season. Good tactics, good execution, really nothing to whine about today. Must say Bellerin has come leaps and bounds. After his nightmare game against Dortmund, he has improved in every match. Jenkinson and Debuchy better watch out! I’d love to see Ospina get an extended run in the side. He hasn’t done anything wrong thus far, and in big games like today’s, you need a calm keeper. Great day for all Gooners worldwide.
Sorry but we don’t need a confidence boost when we play at WHL!
I wd really like coq to go into the role and make it his own. It sounds like Webger will make a call on defensive midfielder in summer. I am also very happy and surprised with Bellerin’s rise. He hasn’t done much wrong as yet despite playing in big games. This is going to massive plus for us in Debuchy’s absence.
Ospina has been refreshingly calm and has got on with things like he has always been there. All in all, I am happy with three new players.
We know we can beat the small teams. The criticism was always “arsenal cannot beat the top teams”.
Well I say FUCK YOU. We will beat every team. Maybe not this season, but next season the championship is ours. COYG
Did you do the promised tattoo thingy yet?
Yeah I drew it with a pen. Reckon arsene will be happy that only his name was on the tip?
Depends if we get relegated. Apparently we are according to the Scouse pundits on sky
I’ll give ramsey an A for effort, but boy was he wasteful in the final third and dangerously close to causing us problems dinking around the edge of our box. all the same, hope he works his way back to full fitness!
He obviously had not trained, he was just blowing out his ass haha. Just like Kompany he was ruined
3 clean sheets in 3 games..ospina outtttt
Oooooooospina, IN…..
Might teach the arrogant Pole a thing or two. Ospina deserves a run in the team and looks solid when called into action so far.
Brilliant let’s tie le coq to long term deal
Put the player ratings up, I’m eager to try and give Santi 11/10
With the whole team defending as one and not playing too far up with everyone thinking attack, we have just played the best three consecutive games of the season. And now that we have some of the injured players returning, there seems to be a whole new level of confidence in the squad. Coq has seriously made his mark in the Defensive Midfield role and that along with a change of Goalkeeper, has added to the level of confidence rise. Arsene still needs to find an extra quality Centre Back, just in case we get injuries in defence again, but… Read more »
The coq stood firm! Looks like a good decision to bring him back! Carzola was outstanding today!
All the people that were hard-on Coq should be ashamed! 🙂
Santi the sundance kid
Been hearing all week from my neighbour across the road that his unstoppable man city were gonna pump us.. Bout how he was gonna put blue streamers on my car Monday morning..
Felt good hanging my arsenal towel over the balcony for him to admire for the next fortnight. Up the arse!
Ahh…your story brought a tear to my eye….
No doubt the whole team played great today but I was really really impressed with Bellerin and Coquelin. With Bellerin stepping up I think it might be a good time to try Chambers as CB or DMF. Bell’s and Coq’s play today surely gives us more options on defense. What’s really making me excited is the team we are building with these young players getting important experience under difficult circumstances. The rest of the year could be very interesting and next year should be even more interesting. COYG!!!!!!!!
Bellerin’s progress makes me wonder what role jenks might find himself in next year.
Jenks has also stood in for CB in the past, and from memory did pretty well, he is strong in the air and I think Jenks could mature into a fine CB.
Monreal was great too, his run of games has brought him into his own a bit more. he is a bit shit at 1on1’s but hes very fit and tenacious. just wish he could not get passed so easy and letting them get their corsses off. he played very well.
Arseblog im looking forward to a video of you eating your hat!
Coquelin. That is all.
Santi > citeh, but le coq was incredible today. Viera would have been proud by how well he disrupted city’s build up play. Loved the absolute bollocking he gave alexis for losing the ball to his feet upfield. Showed the grit and passion we have been missing for so long.
Bellerin was class as well. Actually goes to show that we do have the players, it’s just how they choose to perform.
Santi the sundance kid!
If they bring this kind of performance in to the champions league then very few teams would be able to stop us. Absolutely amazing performance from all of the players today, Santi was outstanding today. I think Coquelin is fantastic in that DM role.
I would love to see Coquelin make that DM role his own for the long-term. I know there’s a long way to go, but the lad has had to really struggle. He was immense today.
Ramsey and Silva look like a couple of kids playing Aeroplanes in that picture.
Brilliant. Cohesive, considered and clearly following some inspired tactical decisions by the management team – which the players executed to perfection. When you have players like Cazorla firing on all cylinders, while Alexis has (by his standards) an average game and Mesut Ozil is on our bench it really makes you realise the quality that we have in this team. It’s tactical shortcomings that have let us down in other games, and a lack of discipline. Easily the best performance against a ‘big’ team that I’ve seen from us for a bloody long time. One gripe, though, would be our… Read more »
Superb. And funny what can happen when you take your opponents game, threats and tactics into consideration when you set up your own team and devise your own strategy. We had a game plan that didn’t revolve solely around just our game and it bloody worked. Arsene, please take note. But tip my hat off to everyone today with special mention to Giroud (tireless display up top and provided a physical presence), Monreal (too many wrote him off far too quickly. Has been solid all season and never really let us down before either), Coquelin (could this be a Roy… Read more »
Feather Penny
Great result. 2-0 at ManC is very creditable. I have always believed that with a fit 1st team squad we can take on any side in the league. Unfortunately, that never seems to happen. When one comes back, another gets injured. If you look at Chelsea, strangely, it is their 1st team that has not had any sort of serious injury this year. Hence they are flying because of the consistency while all other teams have had serious injuries. May be in the second half they’ll have to face reality and show their strength of depth… Hope the team builds… Read more »
And my $chitty-supporting friend laughed at me when I told him I’d put a fiver on Arsenal to win with a one-goal handicap at 17/1 odds!