Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Rosicky, Walcott, Cazorla, Ozil, Alexis
Subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Flamini, Ramsey, Welbeck, Giroud
—
Arsenal got back to winning ways with a scrappy, unconvincing 2-1 win against Leicester City at the Emirates this evening.
Arsene Wenger made a number of changes to the team that lost to Sp*rs, bringing in Alexis, Theo Walcott and Tomas Rosicky for Olivier Giroud, Danny Welbeck and Aaron Ramsey.
The game’s first chance fell to the visitors when Mahrez stepped inside Monreal in the area and saw a deflected effort drift wide with Ospina scrambling. From the corner Alexis had to make a block and the league’s bottom team looked to make a bright start.
The Chilean showed the first signs of Arsenal’s intent, bursting into the box but he was crowded out, and after 13 minutes it was Leicester who threatened once more. Mahrez beat the offside trap, drove into the box and put a shot between Ospina’s legs which again went just wide of the far post.
It seemed to wake Arsenal up however, and a fantastic Mesut Ozil pass found Theo Walcott in the box. The England man’s movement and touch was good, but the finish was half-hearted and hit straight at Schwarzer. From the resulting corner Alexis headed over when he should probably have hit the target.
The former Barcelona man hit a 19th minute free kick into the wall having been fouled by Matthew Upson, and Ozil’s subtle brilliance almost brought about a goal when the keeper pushed his toe-poked effort around the post. It was the incident that brought the opening goal though.
The corner came in, nobody got anywhere near the ball, and Laurent Koscielny ghosted in to slot home at the near post area from 6 yards out. 1-0.
There was some worry over Alexis when he was hurt by a pretty nasty Upson foul on the edge of the box, but the Chilean got treatment and carried on – however, he looked constantly troubled by the injury.
And at 1-0 there were still dangerous moments for Arsenal to contend with. Mertesacker defended brilliantly to clear from inside the six-yard area, while Mahrez again bamboozled the defence before curling a shot inches over the bar.
The miss proved costly as moments later the Gunners doubled the lead. The move began with Bellerin racing back to the win the ball before it was moved to Ozil in midfield. The German’s stinging drive from distance was too hot for Schwarzer to hold and Theo was there to tuck home the rebound into the far corner. 2-0.
Ozil put a free kick just wide before the half came to a close, although there was still time for for David Ospina to come and miss a Leicester corner but thankfully the Foxes couldn’t make anything of the situation.
Arsenal began the second half with claims for a penalty when Danny Simpson handballed inside the area, but in fairness the ball was hit at his hand and the referee gave the corner instead. From that, Tomas Rosicky hit a cracking volley wide.
At the other end Kramaric hit a shot straight at Ospina after good build up play from Strangle McPearson’s side, while Matty James miscontrol with just the Arsenal keeper to beat saw another Leicester chance go begging. They were then forced into a change with an injured Upson (some things never change), being replaced by Wasilewski.
The warning signs were there for Arsenal and after an Opsina save from Kramaric it took a Mertesacker clearance off the line to prevent a goal. From the corner it looked as if Cambiasso handled the ball to keep it alive and when the ball rebounded to Kramaric at the back post he turned and fired in at the near post past Ospina. 2-1.
Santi Cazorla almost hit back straight away with a shot that Schwarzer saved well, before Arsene Wenger made his first substitution bringing on Olivier Giroud for the lacklustre, and probably injured, Alexis.
It didn’t stop the visitors threatening though as Mahrez, for the fourth time in the game, curled a shot just wide when he drove at the heart of the Arsenal defence. That brought about another change with Aaron Ramsey replacing Walcott.
It didn’t do much for our football as again Leicester looked most likely to score. A familiar weakness was exposed when a break from our own corner saw Kramaric clean through but his attempt to chip the onrushing Ospina was poor.
It got worse when Ramsey picked up an injury and was replaced by Mathieu Flamini in the 82nd minute, and the referee ignored a series of fouls on Arsenal players. When he did finally give a free kick for a blatant push on Giroud there were enormous cheers from the Emirates crowd.
Five minutes of added time produced more pressure from the visitors, and a ridiculous yellow card for Giroud when Schwarzer just kicked the ball at his back, but in the end Arsenal hung on for the win.
Scrappy, not a very good performance, but a win and that’s the main thing.
ill take that , all about the 3 points and building some momentum before Monaco
Special mention to the ref for yet another ridiculous performance .
Wtf ever happened to home advantage?
Seriously, the Giroud booking? The fuck was that about. Mike Jones is NOT a Premier League ref, no fucking way. Clearly terrified of upsetting Pearson again, especially after the weekend.
Can we appeal the yellow on Giroud? That was a dreadful call. Ozil and Cazorla got booted around the park, not sure how they didn’t draw more fouls.
If you look at the replay he wasn’t actually looking at the incident as he was running up the field.He probably thought Arsenal player must be a foul. Some of the recent refereeing has been appalling and just to make it worse our nemesis Mike Dean is ref against Middlesborough.(I don’t think he is that bad but we have a poor record when he is in charge). They really ought to start looking at the standards when people like Mason and Atkinson are continually making bad calls.I know that some players are continually trying to con refs (mainly in blue… Read more »
Its almost criminal to question refs performance in the epl, every single remark about them is met with scrutiny and scorn from the FA. And I think its ridiculous, when you’re not doing your job right, you ought to look at yourself, instead of always going on the defensive. If that was what FA see as an adequate refereeing of a EPL match, I do hope none of the EPL referees get involved in european/international ties. Spent most the 1st half watching Sanchez with concern, every time he rubs/stretch his knee. Looked like more than a knock to me, but… Read more »
The game definitely seems to be too quick for the refs in the modern game. Time to bring in the tech.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/9/8005131/zipperbot-mit-wearable-zipper-robot-video
On a lighter note, one less thing to worry about for Arsene.
Along with the fact that the scums are back below us in their usual spot.
With a game in hand, unfortunately.
Nope. Not sp*rs at least.
Nice to see them below us. Got tired after just 3 days of looking up at Spud arses…
Yep, now they can look up at the Arse. As usual.
Don’t usually like doing this but what an awful referee. Someone give him a Leicester jersey.
I’m embarrassed for Mike Jones and the FA
Absolutely fucking ridiculous. I’m dreading a return to the anti arsenal ref behaviour of a few seasons ago
It happens whenever we start looking like a strong team for a spell… Arsenal play well consistently, refs turn against us. I can’t be the only one to think this seems to happen?
I honestly don’t think it’s a simple “anti-Arsenal” conspiracy, but rather a “let-the-under-dogs-have-a-chance” mentality. Arsenal play a very tricksy, passing and tappy kind of football, which the failed footballers who become refs hate, and the other lower level teams (such as Spuds and Leicester) love, as they are able to bully and shove us, which refs like to see as “showing the big clubs they aint all that”. It creates a kind of “Ha, like that [insert Arsenal player]?!” kind of feel, but there really needs to be some kind of consistency, less bias, and some form of fucking regulation… Read more »
Sadly I agree. Take the 4-4 game at Newc some years ago. Arsenal were flying at the point. Leading 4-0 at half time. For some reason the ref gave a red card for Diaby and not Barton!!!! For a sick tackle. Diaby does not put his hands on Bartons face, but does push him to ground. Seconds after Nolan does the same to diaby, nothing happens. Newca score and Nolan does a head lock on Schezza and nothing. And I have not metioned the two penalties in that game….
I mean that game sums up referees against arsenal.
Heard something about the ref screwing over Leicester against Liverpool, so in that c#nt’s mind tonight was the night. A poor performance, but the referee was a joke
Elsewhere, Balotelli has scored to give Liverpool the lead.
Yes you read that right, Balotelli.
QPR won away balo scored, the end is nigh. Hold your family
He was awful, but again, not decisive. We were so shit I counted at least 5 really really good chances for Leicester. Right from kick-off you could see our attitude was poor. what kind of performance was that. Again we couldn’t pass and today absolutely nobody played well in defence . Ospina is a nervous wreck in goal. I have no idea how we won.
Bring back Szcz?
Totally agree mate.
That was god awful.
We made Leicester look like Real Madrid.
Ospina wasn’t brilliant but he wasn’t our worst problem. We’re at home, we’re playing a team at the bottom of the table with an appalling goal difference and a squad worth about sixpence, but still we struggle. Truth is, we struggle against practically everyone these days (Villa being the shining exception) and it isn’t because we’ve got a crap squad. There’s nothing wrong with our players (in theory); our squad is better than most squads in Europe. Before the Spurs game we were all babbling on about our new defensive solidity (thanks to Coq and Gabriel in reserve) and our… Read more »
Isn’t it more of the case that we lack physicality and teams know how to play against us? We seem to crumble when faced with pressing teams or physical teams.
@Goon tang: Of course but we’ve struggled against physical teams for over a decade. Since this weakness makes us unlikely ever to win the league, you’d think it’s the kind of problem that a conscientious manager would have attempted to remedy after a year or two of seeing the same defects again and again. Why don’t other classy attacking teams struggle against the likes of Leicester to anything like the same extent? Thing is, Wenger doesn’t do strategy, not in any respect (coaching, game plans, planning a squad). He believes in nice football and thinks if the good players he… Read more »
There was one particular moment which proved illustrative.
Just before the end of regular time (88th minute) Arsenal had a corner after intense, prolonged pressure from Leicester.
Wenger had to scream at Mertesker and Koscielny to get back and protect our own half as they had joined the attack. It was a bizarre, disheartening moment. The only plus was to see Wenger take action, something he might let slip normally.
How on earth is a common-sense defensive posture not second nature at this point? The tactical naivety at times is alarming.
Well said. I don’t get it…Cazorla was a world beater for several games, but in the last two he looked ordinary. The energy has gone from our midfield. The ref didn’t help by allowing an absurd amount of physicality, but still. Why won’t Walcott play defense? Does Bellerin think he’s so fast he doesn’t have to pay attention to where the opponents are? Per saved us a few times. I wonder if Ramsey ought to get a start the rest of the way at this rate. When Ox returns, things better improve. On the other hand, great finishing for our… Read more »
Not sure Ozil & Santi can play in the same team.
AW doesn’t know his best XI. Against Leicesters lumps, one of Giroud or Wellbeck should’ve started. Need to get balance of the team right. Once we do, think 3rd or 2nd is a real possibility.
Get a bit of luck in the Cups, & who knows. Could still be a great season COYR
I think in fairness to Cazorla, he has been the heartbeat of the team for many games and is due a dip in form, or if feasible a rest. What I would like to see is a sophisticated, inventive approach. Instead of putting the burden straight back on Cazorla (after the bad Spurs performance), move the in-form Ozil to his favoured Number 10 playmakers position – slide Santi out to the left (if he needs to be on the field). Place the higher playmaker pressure on Ozil for a game. We have the talent and flexibility – use it. I… Read more »
I agree. I didn’t even complain after the Spurs match, but this was just baffling.
Well…I have not even touched on playing at ‘walking pace’…seriously, walking it up the pitch was ‘baffling’.
lackadaisical is how I describe it, on top they were trying out all kinds of fancy tricks and flicks, like it was a practice match and the result a foregone conclusion.
Wenger’s teams only play with intensity occasionally, what Fergueson got right was getting his team to play with intensity every match, right up to the final whistle.
Too tight, we got complacent at half time I reckon. 2 more goals would have had us in third place but we sat back and lost the second half.
Need more power and grit in the team, apart from the keeper and CBs the average height was less than 5 foot 10.
Scraped a win versus the bottom club, and at home. Not great…
Sine Samba his tall
Sine? What’s trigonometry got to do with things?
Well if you ban cosiners all the rest of the functions are bound to get involved.
So basically the Villa game was the exception rather the rule…. worrying.
I agree that we need some warriors in our team. Leicester had clearly been told to go out there and beat us up, be physical, and they bullied us all night long and got away with it since we have no one taking the fight back to them. There are no Vieira anymore who flattens anyone getting to rough and by reputation alone can keep the opposition on their best behaviour because they know this is a fight they dont want to pick. But the current Arsenal squad got no such fear factor and we get bullied out of games… Read more »
Difficult to give any back when going anywhere near them is given a foul.
Hopefully Gabriel will add some bite to this squad, he seems like a no nonsense type of player.
Agreed, but in light of the comment above which I also agree with – the last 2 matches running just for starters- hopefully we can keep him on the pitch and the squad at full strength.
That said, How does it go? “He’s a very good natured lad and not the type to go in for that sort of thing.” That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I have no reason to believe otherwise.
Seems to me Giroud got a 3 game suspension for a headbutt not long ago. He does complain a fair amount, but generally seems to not be afraid of physical play.
Three points, the Arsenal (hard) way. Ref was pretty ridiculous, definitely not fit to referee games at this level.
I swear this team should be really, really good now that we’re mostly healthy. How are we so unimpressive?
Look at ozil, he’s looked his usual don’t give a shit type of look but has bagged quite a few assists and goals since coming back. Maybe it’s just the manager’s taste when buying players, I’d personally like a thug willing to poke John Terry’s eyes out, but he doesn’t apparently
There needs to be a “name and shame” website made for referees and it needs to get some media attention. This shit simply can’t go on.
Make this furniture Prime Minister!
We’d end up just naming all of them
Untold Arsenal does it pretty comprehensively already
Honestly though, how good and consistent has monreal been. If that was Gibbs who played CB and played this good at LB, there would’ve been 100 articles in the news about what an absolute world class player he is
Here here! Always likes Gibbs (nice to see an English full back with genuine pace, crossing ability and tackling) but also hoped Monreal would come good. Always feel a bit sorry for players consigned to be “back benchers” but Monreal has showed real fighting spirit and a desire to be the 1st choice. In my opinion, he has earned it – showed passion and versatility, if not quite the raw talent Gibbs shows.
Incredible….
2 Clear hands and penalties missed på sh*t referee and simspson should have had a early bath… Amazing
Important win!!
1. Will never know why we make these matches harder than it should be?
2. To what depth will the standard of refereeing plunge?
That referee was an absolute fanny douche.
Thankfully we held on, very important 3 points!
Come on, blogs, admit you had already written a “Arsenal blow 2-0 lead” opening paragraph JUST in case…I mean, the final whistle was 15 seconds ago!
Shit game, shit performance, shit referee… Its amazing how this team produces magic one evening and, well, shit the next. Besides the huge win, there aren’t any positives.
If Walcott could play in boots, instead of breeze blocks, that would be great.
How many times this season have we had the shittest ref’s in charge of our games? And I feel like I owe the english language an apology for claiming them to be in charge
maybe with the 5Bn in TV rights the FA got they might get some refs who know what the fuck they are doing.
What an abject second half performance.
Second game in a row we’ve come out second half and played woeful
The standard of refereeing just gets worse and worse. Some of the decisions are baffling. That Giroud booking at the end was nothing short of a disgrace. He wasn’t even looking at play. Glad we got out of there with the 3 points.
Thumbs down record coming! But the HFB was deffo making sure he was in the way of the keeper’s kick to waste time.
I love him!
It wasn’t actually a free kick though, was it? If Schwarzer had just knocked it out in front of him, Giroud had every right to try and block it. That might not be accurate, I watched the second half between my fingers, it was nervy stuff. The second one definitely wasn’t a freekick though.
Why does he have to move in that situation? He had his back to a keeper that should have been yellow carded for time wasting less than 10 minutes into the bloody game.
Aaron Ramsey is injured again?!
Well I doubt that he played that shite for two minutes that Wenger decided to sub him after he came on as a sub. So yes, he is injured. Again. 🙁
Ramsey is not injured. It was Diaby disguised as Ramsey. No other way to explain it
Just hope Alexis isn’t badly injured. For heaven’s sake, have mercy on us!
Ramsey is definitely fucked and for me Alexis should not have started the second half. You could see he was struggling with his knee after getting twatted by that wanker Leicester defender. I don’t expect to see either of them at the Boro game at the weekend.
LOL that wanker defender i believe was Mathew Upson, ex Arsenal of course.
Who also limped off early, probably from that collision.
Unfortunately Alexis did a bit of a Jack and opened himself up to it by leading the ball out too far ahead.
Schwarzer kicks ball at giroud needlessly and giroud gets booked. The standard of refereeing is truly ridiculous in this league!
that’s alright, Giroud got penalised for taking an elbow to the throat earlier on too. Level of refereeing is just awful.
Donwright atrocious. Many of the local referees ignore the laws when it comes to the English way v/s the Continental way of playing football. Mike Jones is not fit to referee at the highest level.
Flip!
Very unconvincing performance probably due to fatigue, but 3pts nonetheless.
Hopefully Sanchez & Ramseys injuries aren’t too bad.
Mixed emotions, happy to get the 3 points but that 2nd half especially was piss poor. How soft are nearly all Arsenal players, it seems nearly every 50/50 an Arsenal player stays down and the opposing player gets on with it and often with the ball too. Glad Ozil is playing so well though and Theo is scoring. Ramsey injury hurts us though (and maybe Alexis)
It has something to do with the nature of our tackling, we try to get the ball whereas our opponents often don’t seem too bothered about it.
Rueful smile of acknowledgment.
Even considering the atrocious officiating courtesy of Mike Jones, it is really worrying that we seriously struggled against the bottom team in the PL. The wounds of the Sunday match clearly showing and I hope the team gets their head straight prior to the FA Cup tie this coming weekend. Either way we scraped the three points, so we managed to get the result we wanted, even if it was the classic Arsenal way of making it hard for ourselves.
Well said
It’s understandable that teams can begin a match and play well below par, but I don’t understand how they can continue to play so sluggishly when they’ve been fired as many warning shots as we were tonight before Leicester finally scored.
But fuck it, it’s 3 points in the bag which is all that matters now.
Unbefuckinlievable, how shit was the referee. Their goal came from a prolonged handball, Giroud’s yellow was an absolute joke (BBC describes it as “Giroud gets the yellow card for a bad foul”, are you kidding me?!) and Ozil and Sanchez got kicked to shreds. When it’s such a one-way get-out-of-jail-free fest any team will be under pressure.
I agree with everything except the handball. Replays clearly showed it never touched his arm. We stopped playing on their goal. Watch as Sanchez and Bellerin turn their backs on the shot instead of lunging and blocking it.
I have only one word to say, all over the place !
That’s four words, but I understand where you’re coming from.
Exactly the same as your knowledge of English, unfortunately.
It was a rhetorical saying if you didn’t notice, maybe you need to check what grade do you have in your native language in high-school or collage if you finished one, and if it is low or high think hard why is that.
college*
A rhetorical sentence is one that asks a question but the answer is already known or not required. My native language is Serbian and as you know, neighbor, the rules from our languages have got no direct relation to the ones in English. Also you left an opportunity for a joke to be made about your post and I took it. No hard feelings. Cheers.
Arsenal ghosting back into the top four like Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish ghosting into the king’s small council. #GameOfThrones #afc #reference
Arsene does it again, LETTING liverpool sign Balotelli to score against the spuds. Not only a professor, also a visionary
That was the cuntiest performance I’ve seen from a man supposed to bring order since Caligula decided to fuck his sister then stab an ocean. Shitting bastard fuck of a ref
I swear some serious talking is needed or we will shoot ourselves in the foot AGAIN. Zero effort after we went 2-0 up. Even before then Leicester could have a couple themselves. Cazorla looked off the boil for the second game running, Walcott is effective for all of 1 minute. Ramsey injured again, but way short of having any effect this season, he needs to rethink his game in my opinion. Koscienly seems to be in cruise control, it’s actually Mert who now looks more important. Bellerin is playing to high up and leaving space behind him. Monreal is playing… Read more »
@chuffy, well said.
We will get pounded if we play like that against a decent team.
We really need a leader on the pitch.
Agree with you Chuff; though a shame about Ramsey. Hopefully not too bad, we need him. Ospina is not only a flapper, he can’t kick. The ball hardly gets past the half way line and comes back at us. The excitement over the Coq has dissipated. He is, in fact, not that much better than when we loaned him out to Charlton. I fear a coq up waiting to happen as he dives in and misses.
This was not about Coquelin. He didn’t actually have much worse of a performance. The matches that went well the whole team had shape and worked hard and cohesively. Sp*rs and Leicester, no. I lost count of how many times in both matches we either had shite turnover passes or got caught on the ball in the middle of the pitch or our own half leaving us caught out of shape.
The number of poor passes made the last two matches is not good.
No…hands off Coquelin. Quote (to the Spurs game)… “Since December 28 (when the Frenchman came back into Arsenal’s side) no PL player has won possession more times than Coquelin. That figure stood at 42 prior to this match – it now stands at 56” Coquelin is often having to do double duty, to cover. I am beginning to think (as in the Arsecast) potentially buying a true partner for him to strengthen midfield might be a crucial piece in Arsenals puzzle. As for Ospina, his flappiness increases but I do not think the defense in front of him inspires confidence.… Read more »
I didn’t get to watch the whole game but wow their goal was awful on so many levels haha
It was not good at all! But Spuds lost and we won…we’ve got to get better?…
Come on Burnley and West Ham (tomorrow).
Good 3 points after all said and done. Leceister is like a drowning man…would grab at anything. One banana peel overcome. Sleeping easy.
Browning my pants the whole second half at home to the bottom club. Not good enough.
Awful Second half but three points. Leicester are an underrated and an awkward team to play against and they possess Power, Pace and intensity..All the things this Arsenal side seem to struggle against regardless off the opposition. Saying that, there were alot of really poor individual performances today, which led to what we just had to sit through. Alexis was poor before he got ‘injured’ (Continously losing the ball and breaking moves down) yet he was kept on the pitch for no reason. Still our best player just not his day. Walcott is starting to remind me why he pisses… Read more »
“Cunt juice in his eyes” LOL
Yeah he must’ve been tonguing John Terry before the game. Twunt ref.
And he (Walcott) doesn’t harry defenders when they have the ball, pressuring them into mistakes which DO happen – Sanchez does this and it pays dividends for himself and the squad.
That refree was utter crap!! He should take a break, its not an amusement park. Its football business ffs!
Another poor performance. I guess 3 points will do.
Worried about alexis; looks like the knock he took in the first half affected him.
Ospina looks shaky.
Leceister had chances to win the game. we were let off by them.
Monreal and mert solid.
This team is looking disjointed. Don’t know if it has anything to do with the places returning from injury
My word this league is becoming worse and worse. From blind referees making stupid decisions week in week out, to tossers of home fans leaving 10 minutes earlier when their team is fighting for a win and than slating them after it, to shit teams fighting for top spots that would’ve been shredded by Utd’s, ours or even Chelsea’s league winning squads from the years 1998-2009, to diabolical ”pundits” that are as bias as an assistant coach and fun to listen to as watching the paint dry. Something just feels wrong to me watching these games, like something is missing.… Read more »
Fully agree with you. The PL is getting worse by the minute. The quality of the teams has dipped dramatically over the last few years. And to everyone saying ‘but it’s more competitive’ – shut the fuck up. If you want to watch 20 equally shit teams fighting for every position, then go watch the Championship.
Let me clarify. If our top teams are on par with Eeurope’s best, or at least can give a good game to any of the top teams, then I’d welcome more competition in the PL. Also, other leagues have issues with referees more and more today, hopefully it will reach a boiling point soon and something will be done. But I guess it’s more important that we fine players for exercising their right to free speech on twitter, than retrospectively punishing bad tackles and bad behavior on the pitch etc. Everything’s become just PR. I don’t like how plastic and… Read more »
I’d say football world wide has got worse. So much emphasis on pace and athleticism and so few players with real game intelligence. There are hardly any great players any more.
Been saying the same thing for a while now.
And amazingly, even higher cable fees and tickets prices on the horizon for this shitshow of INEPT refs backed up by an oversight committee of ineffectual nonentities, and broadcasters too busy snorting caviar to educate their commentators and others “faces” of league how to better represent the “product” we’re all buying. Definitely something missing in this equation. Almost as if all parties are happy to tread water knowing global demand will keep the the silly cash flowing.
All in all, a very dodgy performance from top to bottom made worse by a terrible referee. Worst thing about it is the injuries. But in the end we got the 3 points. We can only hope that the injuries are not worse than they looked.
Extremely unconvincing but a win nonetheless.
Imagined if we had banked the points against the Spuds, we would be right up with City.
Instead we are fretting against the bottom team barely surviving the cling on to the points.
We just can’t seem to sustain our level through a game.
On the plus side, Spurs had their day (or two) in the sun and are back in our shadow where they belong.
Here’s hoping for one favourable result from either Soton or United.
How the fuck have we snuck back into fourth already
Also why is Coquelin our only midfielder who knows how to bloody tackle.
We really struggle without Giroud. Hope Ramsey is ok, but it doesn’t look good. We just didn’t get going.
That referee was the shit!
Scrappy performance by The Arsenal due to the ref allowing them to foul us at will. Very difficult to get momentum when you are kicked tripped, headbutted, strangled and get penalised for being strangled to boot.
Fuck Nigel Pearson for instructing his troop of baboons to play like that.
And fuck that referee for making the Premier League the “most competitive in the world”
Same thing happened against Spurs. I noticed many times our players were afraid to go for the ball because if they did, they would’ve gotten a boot to the face/chest.
This whole Ramsey -Rosicky deal, well we dropped our level even with Rosa in (and Alexis) Fans need to stop being so fickle. True Ramsey under performed last game but he can’t be one moment world beater the next utter shyte. Its the same with Flamini. He comes in and the team is more stable. Why? Because there are two DMs on the field for us in Coq and Flamini. Had it been Coq coming on, there would be accolades to no end on how he single handedly stabilised the ship. The issue is as much individual performance related as… Read more »
Enough with your flamin obsession…coq is simply better than he is at the moment.
Passes better, tackles better, better with the ball at his feet, MUCH more mobile.
Flamini only has experience over him.
Mike Jones overcompensating for screwing Leicester over at Anfield? Thought Kos had a strange game today. He scored and made a couple of good blocks/interceptions, but was completely out of sync a couple of times to play their forwards onside. A big win would have been nice to have put GD pressure on Southampton, but we’ve got a nice run now where the teams immediately around us play each other while we can pick up some points. Have to build up a head of steam and clear space ahead of the chasing pack before we play Liverpool, United and Chelsea… Read more »
Well said Arsene!
COYG!
Nacho Monreal is literally playing multiple positions on the pitch – amazing! Heartbroke watching Ramses go off. Best player in the league for much of last season, magical touch, tackles, ridiculous goals… we need that man to be well. Cut the man a break evil fates!
Fu*k referring standards this season. When refs break bad in games like this, our captain needs to remind each player to focus on the result – don’t let them break our stride, too much too lose now!
We won spu#s lost! Happy day.
Top teams will always struggle against desperate opposition. It’s just a different game for those players. Different pressures and expectation, not to mention the siege syndrome. I think as soon as they understood they were dealing with a lenient, inconsistent and frankly shite ref they had an opportunity to bully and harass Arsenal. The resulting frustration upset our game plan. Chelsea suffered similarly against Villa at the weekend (a team we annihilated 5-0). This game wasn’t anymore revealing of terminal problems in our team, tactics or players. We got three points. We won. I’ll be sleeping easy and sticking it… Read more »
We were POOR…don’t try and make excuses.
Being honest has nothing to do with “short-sighted negativity”.
Arsene Wenger: “At half-time I wanted to take Alexis off, but he said ‘no, I’m ok’.” Says it became clear in 2nd half he was not right. A tweet from gunnerblog who’s at Wenger press conference and people wonder why we have so many injuries. Wenger’s go to go in the Summer. He’s spent more than enough over the past 18 months and there’s been no improvement. It’s a joke how he handles injuries. If you ask a player if they want to go out and play they’ll say yes. He did the same with Ozil against Chelsea, he’s done… Read more »
Man, you don’t seem to know much about managers and even less on football.
I assume then you know more then than one of the recognised best managers of the last decade? Players like Alexis don’t get to where they are by not knowing their limits, nor do managers of Wenger’s level of success get to where they are by taking a players word as gospel. Alexis may want to play every game, but he is not a 17 year old desperate to prove himself and will be aware that bollocking himself against Leicester will rule him out of the rest of the season, as will Wenger, who I can assure you has far… Read more »
Except your defense of Wengers decision is misplaced as he himself admitted he wanted to take Sanchez off at half time. Your the manager, do so!
For what its worth I said above (before I read this) Sanchez did not look fit in the first half, period and was then crocked in a tackle. He should never have taken the field in the second half.
I’m not the only one that’s noticed how terrible the refereeing has been this season have I? I’m not just talking about arsenal matches, every single match I’ve watched has been spoilt by referee errors that really shouldn’t happen at this level; the highest level there is.
Right, after reading the comments now, I’m definitely not the only one who sees this
They shouldn’t be called referees. Butchers with whistles would be appropriate.
That was an awful match, and the only thing I can say I’m happy about is the three points. We really should have lost that by about five or six to two, but fortunately Leicester were as shit at finishing as the referee was shit at refereeing. Playing Sanchez as the lone striker simply doesn’t work. We need either Giroud or Welbeck up there to win the ball and feed the rest, plus provide an aerial target. We have absolutely no hold-up threat without one or the other. I don’t know what’s happened to our midfield the last couple of… Read more »