It remains to be seen whether Tomas Rosicky will play again for Arsenal but in his absence the Czech midfielder believes his teammates have the quality to win the title.
The 35-year-old midfielder has been ruled out for up to three months with a thigh injury sustained on his comeback after six months out. It’s a cruel blow for the veteran but despite his shock and frustration he’s hoping the Gunners can secure their first championship of his decade at the club.
Speaking to Arsenal Player ahead of Sunday’s clash with Bournemouth, just days after a 0-0 draw with Southampton saw Arsenal drop to 4th in the table, Rosicky urged calm.
“In the game against Southampton we had plenty of chances and the performance was alright, but we have to show more killer instinct.
“We cannot expect that we will have so many chances in every game. What’s important though is that we don’t panic. There are plenty of games in front of us. All the big teams are playing against each other so it will be very interesting and I believe we have what it takes to win the league this year.
“It’s one of the best [Arsenal sides I have played in] because we have some world-class players here. I feel we have what it takes to win the league but we are not allowed to have any more slip-ups.
“The spirit in our dressing room was always right. Whichever new player came into the dressing room always felt welcomed because the spirit was always good.
“It’s very important that, even when you have a rough spell which you will definitely have in a season, you stay positive, don’t panic, analyse everything in the right way and believe you have what it takes to win the league. I do.”
If Arsenal are going to get their title challenge back on track they’ll need to be wary of former player Benik Afobe who has been banging in the goals for Bournemouth since his January move from Wolves.
The 22-year-old was a hot prospect when he graduated from the Arsenal Academy only for a series of serious injuries to stunt his development.
Unsurprisingly, the in-form attacker is looking forward to facing his old club; for whom he still has a great deal of affection even though first team opportunities were few and far between.
Speaking to the Guardian, Afobe reflected: “I love them, love everyone at Arsenal, but it would have been nice to have got my chance because, to be honest, I don’t think I got a fair chance in the first team. I never made an appearance while there have been players who haven’t had great Arsenal careers who played five or 10 games, but that’s a story for another day.
“Maybe it was better to leave Arsenal without playing a game because everyone knows I didn’t get a chance. If I had played four or five games and was terrible, you start thinking you are an Arsenal reject. For me it was just that the chance didn’t come.”
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The full interview with Afobe is available here, it’s well worth a read.
Nothing but good things to say about Rosicky,he’s the link to the past and one of the few that didn’t jump ship. Respect!
Shame Afobe didn’t get a chance really, hope Chuba works out and it doesn’t bite us on the arse.
Anyway must win game tommorow, seems we are a better team when playing catch up!
Have a good weekend fellow gooners.
COYG
Incredibly small world but just randomly met’JustBrowsing’, just had a good Saturday morning chat about the Arsenal! Top man
Up the Arsenal!
Wasn’t too random as I was making a delivery haha. Certainly a small world, and fair play asking if I go on arseblog, and weird i commented 10mins before!
Obviously the only Arsenal blog worth mentioning.
And who disliked your reply? Maybe a spud is running around causing mischief!
Anyway always nice meeting a fellow gooner and arseblog reader.
Rosicky knows
Maybe he does, but in the last month or two, I’ve seen nothing to suggest Arsenal are title contenders.
I wish we could be more like Leicester. You know, talk like we’re not contenders, but act like we are. We do the opposite.
Gonna miss you Tomas…
I feel for the lad and he is absolutely right. It wouldnt be fair to say he wasn’t good enough for the first team when he never had a chance to prove himself……..good luck to him and i personally hope he goes on to to carve out a good career as a top striker for himself, so we can all fondly remember him as one of those that we mistakenly let get away?…. and in foootball anything is possible anyway, if he develops to be that good, he might still end up playing again for arsenal? we might even have… Read more »
What’s the best result from Leicester/Citeh?
Draw? As both loose points?
Unless your confident Ciry won’t win the league and then I’d say a City win.
Draw for me. Keep us closer to Leicester providing we beat Bournemouth.
A draw would have been good between man city and Leicester but not looking good eh!!!
They aren’t going away are they.
First we need a big result tomorrow then we need to go a winning run including against Leicester.
Seriously, WTF was that Leicester?
Watching some rosicky video clips on youtube just reminds you of what a top quality player we are missing thanks to poxy injuries!!! I especially love the way he runs at players and seems to skip past them with ease – boy could we do with someone like that in attack right now!!! I think rosicky would get into the first eleven of an all time best players under Wenger fantasy team!!! Amazing player and those goals v spud and scouse bin-dippers were awesome!!!
Title – Do it for Rosicky! I vividly remember that screamer he scored in the CL and his 2 goals against Liverpool in the FA Cup. Idolized Henry, loved Fabregas (I know, Chelsea blah blah -still we all loved him ), Rosicky – there was always something special, the runs (glides!), the touch, link up play. It was he who would help drag us over the line to a top 4 finish in the second half of the season. I really hope this isn’t the end. I know it would not make sense but i would not begrudge him another… Read more »
Yes mate. Exactly.
Hopefully today will be a good day for us. A ManC win over Leicester and a Watford win over Tottenham. Then we take care of business tomorrow with a win over Bournemouth and we are right back in good shape. There can’t be any excuses if we don’t beat Bournemouth. It’s a must at this point regardless of what happens today.COYG!!!
Rosicky, What a legend! Hope Arsenal look after him properly. Also Afobe is spot on. He probably deserved his chance more than some players who have turned out for the club recently, but like he says that is one for another day….Mr Wenger.
Crumbs Leicester are winning lol what a carry on!!!
Oh well. LC is handing MC a beating. Obviously, we will have to win tomorrow and then beat LC at home next week. Absolutely a must. Still hoping the Spuds lose to Watford so it won’t be a lost day. As I said before, it is time for us to show what we have. LC is playing sky high and need to be brought back down. Still can’t figure how they’re doing it. They suddenly look like world beaters this year. What a crazy year.
I think that LC beating MC is doing us a great favor(I’m not dismissing them), this is our chance to get back wining and be favorites for the title win tomorrow against Bournemouth and win against LC next week and we are 2 points behind with city and spuds playing each other, if someone can lose points in final games would be LC, trust me if we win our next two, at the end it will be us or city for the title. COYG !
Dopers 😉
Yeah we have our best team in years and sit in forth, whilst Leicester are top with a squad a fraction of the price of ours, man city, manure, chavski, Liverpoo and spuds – I am happy they are out performing all the other teams but not us!!!
I thin is better for us LC won against city win the next two and we are 2 points behind them which I think it will be much easier to catch them in the run in than city, plus next one is city-spuds whic is perfect for us, but only depends on us now win the next two and we are back and favorites .
All talk no action…
Meh in terms of Leicester City, this is really just continuation of the Form from last season. I’m just glad people are taking them seriously now; they should have done weeks (maybe a month or two) ago.
Also, if you look at the amount of time we held on to Diaby for, I’d say we can afford Rosicky another season. I’ll be gutted to see him go either way, a true gunner through and through that one
I’m betting he wouldn’t have made this statement after seeing what Leicester did to city.
The plan that many Gooners had in place which involved city beating Leicester and then us beating Leicester is already in tatters. But with Guardiola already at city, Wenger will be safe again even finishing out of the top 4.
Well worth the most expensive seats in football.
There are more than a couple of games left you know. Don’t think that was anyone’s ‘plan’, not an end one anyway.
Hi Jason, you are right about too much talk!!! Wenger, Walcott, et al yapping on about us being title contenders – yeah prove it!!! Leicester meanwhile have a manager that constantly plays down their title chances when it is clear they are more than capable!!! Wenger puts the pressure on his flakey team, not great man management!!
Rosicky is a fantastic football player and seems like a lovely guy. It’s a shame that he feels the need to tow the company line to say that we might win the league. Be honest with us Tomas, we can take it!
Watching France in the rugby is like watching Arsenal lol all promise and well….
Damn. Now the Spuds are up 1-0. We’re going to have to take it into our own hands.We absolutely have to beat Leicester next week and continue winning right to the end.
Not a chance spurs winning the title I think they will be battling for 4th with utd and will lose the 4th to them just looked at their fixtures. They need to play:
Manchester City (a)
West Ham (a)
Arsenal (h)
Liverpool (a)
Manchester United (h)
Stoke (a)
Chelsea (a)
Southampton (h)
Our main rivals are city and Leicester which I think it was good city losing today it will be easier to catch Leicester than city, Leicester form will drop mark my words they can’t maintain all season not a chance.
All good but we need to start winning….I hope we do!
Leicester win.
The scum winning.
The Arsenal against Bournemouth? Yep, I have no idea either.
If Leicester win the PL and we don’t, then some heads must roll.
What if Leicester wins the league and we do too?
Maybe then just flopping to the ground with a dull thud will suffice.
Remember, all the other “favorites” will be in the same boat as us. I don’t think all those heads will roll too.
Except they have won it in recent years because they had more money than us… just like we have more than Leicester.
Tbf heads have already rolled at city and chels. Would be surprised if LVG keeps his job.
You say now we have to beat Leicester, we don’t even know if we’ll beat Bournenouth!
And as for heads must roll if Leicester win the league, there is NO CHANCE of that happening, EVER. Wenger will only leave when he wants too.
I think we will beat Bournemouth by 3-4 goals and start a run in and I i’m also convinced that we will beat Leicester, they know that their tacit doesn’t work against us .
Thumb down all you like I will be coming back to this comment when we win against Bournemouth and Leicester.
I don’t have a problem with Leicester winning the PL, they are the most consistent team, Claudio is a likeable manager and they deserve to be top. On our current form we do not deserve to win the title as much as I would like us to.
We must beat Bournemouth though tomorrow, a draw is not enough and a clean sheet would boost confidence.
Would like to see Cech, Bellerin, Mert, Kos, Nacho, Coq, Elneny, Ozil, Sanchez, Campbell and Giroud start.
Never want to see Flam and Ramsey start together again and Theo can sit on the bench …
We all agree that Wenger needs to go if we don’t win the league? Totally unacceptable considering the circumstances!!!
Yeah we may agree for wenger to go. But to be replaced by who? Any idea? Van Gaal? Maureen? Encelotti? Or big Sam? Oh how about Gary neville? Even better, David Moyes may be?
Now you must be really pissed ready the above right? So be careful what you wish for mate
We ALL do not agree…
Pochettino and Simeone would be the two obvious Choices now that we’ve missed out on Klopp and Guardiola (who would have both come). I quite like the Chile manager too as well Conte.
Like many, I love AW for all he’s done but he is clearly under performing now. As a Spurs fan said to me the other day “if our manager was in charge of your squad….we’d be 10-15 points clear”. Said it all really
I’m pretty sure a lot of Gooners are ready to sell their soul to Maureen if it means a PL and CL title.
IF we win at Bournemouth and then beat Leicester at home next week I would agree that we would be more than likely ,barring further injury setbacks, to go on and win the league.
Fucking big IF though isn’t it !!
honestly could care less about rosicky’s opinion. feel sorry for the guy but we have not benefited at all by keeping him in the squad for recent seasons. how Arsene justifies not replacing injury prone players I will never know.
anyways arteta, rosicky and flam seem to have had a relaxed great last few seasons.