Aaron Ramsey hopes Arsenal’s latest failure in the Champions League acts as a kick up the bum for the rest of the season.
The Gunners currently sit third in the Premier League, sandwiched by the two Manchester clubs and trailing table toppers Chelsea by seven points, and also have a semi-final date at Wembley to look forward as they defend their FA Cup crown.
Eager to finish the season on a high after last night’s away goals exit at the hands of Monaco, Ramsey reflected:
“We could take some positives from the Monaco performance, and hopefully we can get back on track against Newcastle this weekend and we can keep that running run we are on.
“Many things can happen in the Premier League still, with many twists and turns. We will be looking to concentrate on ourselves and take full advantage of the games we do have left.
“We are also in a good position in the FA Cup. We have Reading (in the semi-finals), which we will feel confident of going through.”
While talk of a title challenge is pretty desperate, it’s not inconceivable that we might achieve our best league finish in ten years. The Gunners have won 20 of their last 25 games in all competitions, a run that sees them second in the form table behind Liverpool.
Meanwhile, Spanish left back Nacho Monreal bemoaned the club’s exit from Europe last night.
“Man, I thought shit was gonna be different this season,” he said. “I was straight up horn-dogging over a continental triumph.
“Now I’m all like … woah, this is not how it’s supposed to be. This is NOT how it’s supposed to be.”
*drops mic*
It’s nice to see that Nacho’s English has certainly improved.
Seems like he has been living in Ghetto.
Check yourself, before you wreck yourself AK57.
Way to ruin the bit.
Ghetto in london? More like immature gangster wannabe kids…
Monreal is real mon
Nacho, coq au vin, gi-roux sauce, ram-sea bass. anyone else?
Alex Oxtail-Chamberlain
David Os-Piña Colada,
Pear Muttonsacker (I’m calling that as a double).
NACHO GOAL
Nacho Monreal – The gooner’s voice of reason.
Great win hope lesson have been learnt from this
Yesterday was the best european performance since 2-1 vs barca in 2011.
Shout out to Arseblog, thank you for providing such a great service and destination for Arsenal fans. A joy being able to come on every day and discuss the club with other fans, even the silly negative ones. I commend you for your passion and work and hopefully I can buy you a pint sometime in Dublin to say cheers! This site to me, is the last stronghold of the old Arsenal. Long may it last
Here here!
Where where?
“Hear hear” I think? 🙂
Waiting for the off.
Wipe that shit of your nose.
Do we get a free kick, for your use of the word “of”? 🙂
True story I’m indebted to you geezer for the wit, the pure love for Arsenal that’s so evident in all your postings(positive as well as negative) the absolutely brilliantly biased live blogs -some cunt off, some cunt on- and last but certainly not least for giving us the Arsenal Gent. Long may you continue.
Arsenal Gent is brilliant … are you ”banjaxed on (his) 100% pure coke” when you dream it up or what?
Keep up the good work lads
Still find it intriguing that the medics have discovered what the specific cause of Ramsey’s reoccurring hamstring problem was.
Going to enjoy watching him making a more frequent appearance in our games.
COYG.
It was his doppelganger with the hamstring problems, what they found was the real Ramsey, the one from last season.
I got the chance to speak to Giroud today as he came into my place of work. I took the opportunity to say well done for last night and to let him know that all that we as fans want are spirited performances like last night for the rest of the season. He looked a bit indifferent (I mean, who am I to him) but I hope he listened. It’s important for the Arsenal team to humanise their jobs and play for us as well as theirselves. We are a collective, not just 11 men on a pitch.
First time I’ve met him he looked same but he was nice enough to shake my hand and look into my eyes forever tormenting my sexual orientation #true story
So the convo went: “Well done for last night – all that we as fans want are spirited performances like last night for the rest of the season. Would you like fries with that?”
“Meh. Oui.”
haha pretty much just replace the fast food with watches.
Expensive, beautiful watches, suitable for a HFB?
Or was Oli in Argos?.. 🙂
Like Blogs says in today’s post, a marathon runner that trips itself up every few laps. The run is very good indeed, but we seem to be a team that falters at the important moments, not just every few laps, but more the laps that really matter. The goal should be to win and if not, stay unbeaten. Someone got a lot of grief on a guardian match report when he said the recent Arsenal teams are mentally weak, and that is down to Wenger. Fact is, Wenger himself admitted as much when reflecting on the 3-1 at home, when… Read more »
So are you saying that the Chavs (Bradford?), $iteh (Middlesbrough)), ManUre (MK Dons) etc etc don’t lose to the smaller teams? So we shouldn’t either…….
When’s you next book coming out? 🙂
Giroud makes my loins feel all tingly and junk.
Or was it that Giroud makes your junk all tingly and loins… Wait a minute…
Yes Rambo, let’s keep that ‘running run’ going. So much better than the walking run we were on at the start of season!
did anyone notice that for the last 4 years with finishing second in the group we play the firs leg at home and it kind of starting to be mental block for us to play the first game home, we start to play with fear not to concede the away goal we try to play not to conciede and everything going wrong after we concede first like with monaco, bayern , barca we open up stupidly trying to level the score but making suicide mistakes and concede again and trow the game. The is a reason why the first team… Read more »
Is going to be hard with the new seeding rules, Champions of each league and holders getting first seed, followed by ?. We could end up in a group witheither Bayern, PSG, Barca/Real, Juventus, plus Portugal and Russia winners. It gets more random, could luck out with the winners of portugal together with some other also rans.
That’ll make it difficult for 4 of the groups but not an issue for us if we get one of the other groups (OK with our luck we’re F*cked)
Please please please let it be a lesson when we face Reading in the semi-final of the FA Cup. From now on do not underestimate any team.
Please…
On a side note great to see Rambo get a couple of goals recently, he really is a confidence player and you can tell from his demeanour those goals have really lifted him in his general play too. Had the same sort of thing after those goals vs Stoke and Gala but then his hamstring went again. If he stays fit now I really wouldn’t be surprised to see him rack up a whole lot more before the end of the season, hopefully another FA cup final winner included!
The Arsenal Cycle:
-Get into the top 4.
– Qualify for Group Stages
– Come Second in group stages
– Get knocked out in Second Round after a “valiant effort”
– Impressive in last 3-5 games
– High hopes next season
Same ish over and over again. Oh and I forgot “2 or 3 players away from being genuine title contenders”
You forgot “win the FA Cup” and “runners up in the league” but you are correct in “high hopes for next season”
“things are a changing” IMHO
COYG!
But that has happened only once in 10 years, so for now, its a rarity.
Runners up in the league?? people are starting to get carried away again.
Till i see this so called changed for 3 years straight, its just same old same old for me.
Oh piss off Stewart Robson!
Arsenal will win the title sooner rather than later. COYG!
Thanks TY. i hope so too…not just for my sake, but just so you don’t keep looking stupid with your “positive attitude”
You had me until ‘ish’
“Same SHIT over and over again”…happy now.
Media as per usual (BBC Danny Muppet Murphy) asking inane questions like “should we be satisfied forever going out of CL and finishing fourth”. Poor attempt at stirring discontent at best. We have never been successful in Europe anyway so whether its round 16 or quarters exit, the only difference this season was we had a good draw and we botched it. But ask Liverpool or Spurs or for the matter what their priority is, they would be happy to finish top 4 cup. For that matter (in case he hasn’t noticed which he hasn’t), we are in a race… Read more »
And the form Ramsey is coming back into will be extremely important for our run in.
Me thinks Mourinho is now looking over his shoulders and it isn’t City he is worried about.
Yeah, unlike some of the fans who seems to follow their hearts instead of their brains I believe the league was lost in October/November.. We got a chance for 2nd place, which really only gives us a slot in a competition which we never seem to progress in. Let’s not be positive about the result last night which meant we went out against a team we really should have seen off without any issues whatsoever. We made similar efforts in previous games: Milan 2012, Bayern Münich 2013.. One good performance cannot make up for fuck ups in the other game.… Read more »
Exactly…but according to the “positive fans” on here, its wrong to ask for that/have that opinion.
Anyone with your opinion is “negative, spuds fan in disguise”. Thats why people like piers morgan are hated so much despite him being more of a fan than probably 90 percent of these “positive fans”.
Accepting 4th place and praising wenger for getting knocked out in the second round for the last 5 years makes you the “perfect fan”.
If you take last nights game on its own, it was a very strong positive performance and bodes well for the run in. However, when you look at it in context of the season, it just compounds the ‘not-so-great’ season that we have had. We started slowly, with a ‘not-so-great’ first few matches. Went through a period of stop-start moments and then seemed to find ourselves just before January. Then we suffered a ‘no-so-great’ result against Southampton, responded well and went on a very good run. Beat City to show that we can compete with our direct rivals, and then… Read more »
The biggest thing we need to take from the 1st leg… Never underestimate the opposition.
That’s the funny thing: we went out during the first half of the home game with the attitude to win it but tactically Monaco was stronger and more disciplined defensively. They defended extremly well and we had a few chances where we should have scored but did not.. I am just glad that we went out with a tiny bit of dignity.
Disappointment as we proved we under-performed against inferior opposition in the 1st leg last night. Once more out on away goals so we can keep our heads up. Mentality seems to be the issue as we limply approach the 1st legs of this competition. It seems we need a major shock to react and perform to our highest level. Frustration for the fans once more but at least we have winnable semi final in fa cup and are 1 point away from 2nd place so there is much to play for. I would also like is to repeat last nights… Read more »
To be over simplistic, only one team can win the league and only one an so in Europe. It doesn’t matter how far you get if you’re not the ultimate winner. We could come second this year, besting City, Utd, Liverpool, Spurs etc and getting pipped by just Chelsea and people will whine and whine. We will win again. But part of the game is the disappointment, the sour that makes winning evermore sweet. We will win again and we are building toward that. This team has more than just flashes of brilliance – it’s starting to sustain long periods… Read more »
Oh..? We hear this every year yet we see no improvements. Wenger spent over £80m this summer and still made no progress in the league or the CL.
We spent around £90m.
That is a similar amount to City, £30m less than Chelsea, £30m less than Liverpool, £55m less than united.
Even so, we have gone as far as anyone else in Europe and the FA cup and are now doing well in the league. This is definitely progress.
I’d agree, though, I would also argue that last year, up until Christmas, we were on top for a long period.
Injuries to Ozil, Ramsey and Walcott saw our title changes disappear.
That being said, maybe we will do a ‘City’ of last year, and pip Chelsea like they did to Liverpool.
We have definitely made progress though, the team look more resolute, and we’ve avoided any real drubbings this year.
EXACTLY! THE PAIN MAKES THE TRIUMPH SWEETER.
SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS. ONLY HAPPENS HERE. STRANGE..
Just watched Messi take a piss all over City and raising the bar for what kind of level you need to be at to succeed in the Champions League. His top level is off the charts. Ronaldo is sick aswell, but he got this God given athletic body tailor made for succeeding at sports. Messi on the other hand got an average build and small size, and you would not think he would ever dominate as much as he is. But, English football.. Overrated? Not looking good when Chelsea is dominated at home by 10 man PSG, and we are… Read more »
You know what?
I would like that every time anyone cites English football is overrated and the weakness is highlit when playing in Europe, it was mandatory to note the lack of winter break.
For once I would love to see how Barcelona or Bayern played without a winter break of several weeks, not to mention an insane schedule through Christmas and New Year.
I love that schedule but everyone should recognize it provides European teams with an absurd advantage.
When taken into account I think English teams perform well in Europe.
Great to see Rambo returning to form just at the right time. He and Ozil are really starting to turn up the heat and with Giroud playing so well and the Coq clearing up so well behind them things are lookin really positive for an exciting run in. Although it’s not likely, as long as it’s mathematically possible to do so it’s nice to feel that there’s still a chance we could finish with two trophies this season, especially given the start we had. This is the most likeable squad of players we’ve had for quite some time and I… Read more »
The Community Shield is an actual achievement, commemorated with an actual piece of silverware, so I say we’re already on one success this season.
Did u guys see pellegrini’s comments about how they are unfairly hampered by FFP? He deserves to be sacked for the stupidity of that comment alone… As for arsenal’s spending forget the last year or two and look at the net spending over the last 5 – 8 years, you’ll be surprised to see just how many shitty teams have outspent us and yet here we are top 3 in the lge, last 4 in the cup and last 16 in Europe. It’s really not all bad, don’t let our over-achievement when we had no money blind you to the… Read more »
being 7 points off 1st is really not that much – especially when we’ve still got a game against Chelsea left. And last season we lead the table for SO long. I can kind of understand why non-Arsenal fans write us off as serious contenders each year, but I sure as hell hope the club and the players don’t buy into that mentality. They are absolutely capable of doing it – the recent big wins against City and Utd only further prove it, and I hope those results act as a catalyst for next season.
But the fans who can actually see the trouble we (as a club) have been through and that can see us moving past it, should really have a bit more patience, faith and understanding.
The big question that a lot of people seem to have is: is this ultimately going to be a season of disappointment, or a season of progress? For me, the way we conceded the league before it had even started properly was a big disappointment, and the only way to overcome that would be some big positives to cancel it out. Going out the way we did to Monaco was another big disappointment. So to see this as a season of progress, I would really need us to: – Reach the FA cup final and play well in it. I… Read more »